Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music, and rings itself all the way through; and thou shalt make of it a dance, a dirge, or a grand life-march as thou wilt.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian

(Attributed)

Variant: "Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings itself the way through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life-march, as thou wilt."

This is widely attributed in the late 19th Century to Carlyle, but I cannot find any primary source or citation for it. The earliest reference I can find to this is its apparent quotation in Kate W. Hamilton, "Ariel Seaton's Rainy Day," The Ladies' Repository (1868-01), but it is not attributed to Carlyle, only included in quotation marks. Perhaps because of this, other sources actually (mis)attribute it to The Ladies' Repository (1883, 1889), and other sources include no attribution whatesoever.