Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian

Essay (1828-05), “Goethe’s Helena,” Foreign Review, Vol. 1, No. 2, Article 5
    (Source)

Review of Goethe's Sämmtliche Werke, Vol. 1 (1827); not labeled as Carlyle but believed to be his. Collected in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).