The Courage we desire and prize is not the Courage to die decently, but to live manfully.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“Boswell’s Life of Johnson” (1832), Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1849)
Quotations by:
Carlyle, Thomas
Rich as we are in Biography, a well-written Life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“Jean Paul Friedrich Richter,” Edinburgh Review #91, Art. 7 (Jun-Oct 1827)
(Source)
A review of Heinich Döring, Jean Paul Friedrich Richter's Life, with a Sketch of his Works (1826).
The thoughts they had were the parents of the actions they did; their feelings were the parents of their thoughts.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“The Hero as Divinity,” On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841)
The purse is any Highwayman’s who might meet me with a loaded pistol, but the Self is mine and God my Maker’s; it is not yours; and I will resist you to the death.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“The Hero as King,” On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841)
A man always is to be himself the judge of how much of his mind he will show to other men; even to those he would have work along with him. There are impertinent inquiries made: your rule is to leave the inquirer uninformed on that matter; not, if you can help it, misinformed; but precisely as dark as he was!
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“The Hero as King,” On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841)
Self-deception once yielded to, all other deceptions follow naturally more and more.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“The Hero as King,” On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841)
Manhood begins when we have in any way made truce with Necessity; begins even when we have surrendered to Necessity, as the most part only do; but begins joyfully and hopefully only when we have reconciled ourselves to Necessity; and thus, in reality, triumphed over it, and felt that in Necessity we are free.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“Burns” (book review), Edinburgh Review, #96 (1828)
The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Attributed)
The block of granite which was an obstacle in the path of the weak, becomes a steppingstone in the path of the strong.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Attributed)
Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Attributed)
Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one rascal less in the world.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Attributed)
This can also be found quoted as "one less rascal" and "one less scoundrel." I cannot find an original source for it.
I don’t like to talk much with people who always agree with me. It is amusing to coquette with an echo for a little while, but one soon tires of it.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Attributed)
Attributed in Tryon Edwards, A Dictionary of Thoughts (1891).
The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self-activity.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Attributed)
Quoted in James Wood (ed.), Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893).
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."
The earliest reference I can find to this is its quotation in (or perhaps adjacent to) Kate W. Hamilton, "Ariel Seaton's Rainy Day," The Ladies' Repository (Jan 1868).
His religion at best is an anxious wish — like that of Rabelais, a great Perhaps.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Edinburgh Review, “Burns” (1828)
In every object there is inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
History of the French Revolution, Vol. I (1837)
The fine arts once divorcing themselves from truth are quite certain to fall mad, if they do not die.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Latter Day Pamphlet, No. 8 (1850)
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
London and Westminster Review, “Varnhagen von Ense’s Memoirs” (1838)
Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History (1840)
The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History, “The Heroic in History: (1840)
Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History, Lecture V, “The Hero as a Man of Letters” (1840)
No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, could ever compel the soul of man to believe or disbelieve.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, “The Hero as Priest” (1841)
Democracy means despair of ever finding any heroes to govern you, and contentedly putting up with the want of them.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present (1843)
Tell a man he is brave, and you help him to become so.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present (1843)
Every noble work is at first impossible.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, ch. 11 “Labour” (1843)
No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 4 (1831)
(Source)
Wonder is the basis of worship.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 10 (1831)
(Source)
Hadst thou not Greek enough to understand thus much: The end of Man is an Action and not a Thought, though it were the noblest.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 6 (1831)
(Source)
From Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1.3.6 ("The end aimed at is not knowledge but action").
With Stupidity and sound Digestion man may front much.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 7 (1831)
(Source)
But indeed Conviction, were it never so excellent, is worthless till it convert itself into Conduct. Nay properly Conviction is not possible ill then.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 9 (1831)
(Source)
As the Swiss inscription says: Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden — “Speech is silvern, Silence is golden”; or, as I might rather express it: speech is of time, silence is of eternity.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 3 (1831)
(Source)
That there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity for Knowledge, this I call a tragedy.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 4 (1831)
(Source)
Trust not the heart of that man for whom old clothes are not venerable.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 6 (1831)
(Source)
Philosophy complains that Custom has hoodwinked us, from the first; that we do everything by Custom, even Believe by it; that our very Axioms, let us boast of Free-thinking as we may, are oftenest simply such Beliefs as we have never heard questioned. Nay, what is Philosophy throughout but a continual battle against Custom; an ever-renewed effort to transcend the sphere of blind Custom, and so become Transcendental?
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 8 (1831)
(Source)
Innumerable are the illusions and legerdemain-tricks of Custom: but of all these, perhaps the cleverest is her knack of persuading us that the Miraculous, by simple repetition, ceases to be Miraculous.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 8 (1831)
(Source)
I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The Age of Reason, “The Author’s Profession of Faith”
O poor mortals, how ye make this earth bitter for each other.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, 1.5.5 (1837)
There are depths in man which go down the length of the lowest Hell, as there are heights which reach the highest Heaven; — for are not both Heaven and Hell made out of him, everlasting Miracle and Mystery that he is?
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution, Vol. 3, Book 1, ch. 4 (1837)
(Source)
This is often cited back to its popular attributed variant in Tryon Edwards (ed.), A Dictionary of Thoughts (1891):
There are depths in man that go to the lowest hell, and heights that reach the highest heaven, for are not both heaven and hell made out of him, everlasting miracle and mystery that he is.
Martin Luther King, Jr., used that variant in his sermon, "The Christian Doctrine of Man," Detroit Council of Churches’ Noon Lenten Services (12 Mar 1958):
And so they would cry out with Carlyle that there are depths in man which go down to the lowest hell and heights which reach the highest heaven. For are not both heaven and hell made out of Him, everlasting miracle and mystery that He is.
Can there be a more horrible object in existence than an eloquent man not speaking the truth?
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Address as Lord Rector of Edinburgh University (1866)
The beginning of all is to have done with falsity — to eschew falsity as death eternal.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Journal (23 Jun 1870)
I grow daily to honor facts more and more, and theory less and less.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Letter to Emerson (29 Apr. 1836)
The last quality, perseverance, I particularly respect: it is the very hinge of all virtues. — On looking over the world, the cause of nine parts in ten of the lamentable failures which occur in men’s undertakings & darken and degrade so much of their history, lies not in the want of talents or the will to use them, but in the vacillating and desultory mode of using them — in flying from object to object, in starting away at each little disgust, and thus applying the force which might conquer any one difficulty to a series of difficulties so large that no human force can conquer them. The smallest brook on earth, by continual running, has hollowed out for itself a considerable valley to flow in: the wildest tempest, by its occasional raging, over-turns a few cottages, uproots a few trees, and leaves after a short space no mark behind it. Commend me therefore to the Dutch virtue of perseverance! Without it all the rest are little better than fairy gold, which glitters in your purse, but when taken to the market proves to be — slate or cinders.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Letter to John Carlyle (15 Mar 1822)
(Source)
If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify Him. They would ask Him to dinner, and hear what He had to say, and make fun of it.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Quoted by Joseph Neuberg in a letter to his sister (12 Jan 1850)