WIST Quotations

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Burns,” Edinburgh Review No. 96, Art. 1 (1828-12)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

His religion at best is an anxious wish, — like that of Rabelais, a great Perhaps.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“Burns,” Edinburgh Review No. 96, Art. 1 (1828-12)
(Source)

A review of Lockhart, The Life of Robert Burns (1828).

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Burns,” Edinburgh Review No. 96, Art. 1 (1828-12)

Dave — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:07:57 +0000

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,” Edinburgh Review No. 96, Art. 1 (1828-12)
(Source)

A review of Lockhart, The Life of Robert Burns (1828).

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Goethe,” Foreign Review No. 3 (1828-08)

Dave — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 19:16:37 +0000

In every man’s writings, the character of the writer must lie recorded.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“Goethe,” Foreign Review No. 3 (1828-08)
(Source)

Reviewing Goethe's Sämmtliche Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe Letzter Hand (1827). Reprinted in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1845).

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Goethe,” Foreign Review No. 3 (1828-08)

Dave — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:08:17 +0000

Clever men are good, but they are not the best.

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Goethe,” Foreign Review No. 3 (1828-08)

Dave — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:10:33 +0000

We are firm believers in the maxim that for all right judgment of any man or thing it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Jean Paul Friedrich Richter,” Edinburgh Review No. 91, Art. 7 (1827-06)

Dave — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 19:56:26 +0000

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 No. 91, Art. 7 (1827-06)
(Source)

A review of Heinrich Döring, Jean Paul Friedrich Richter's Life, with a Sketch of His Works (1826).

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Jean Paul Friedrich Richter,” Edinburgh Review No. 91, Art. 7 (1827-06)

Dave — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 16:37:12 +0000

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with; as if, observes our author himself, any originality but our own could be expected to content us! In fact all strange thing are apt, without fault of theirs, to estrange us at first view, and unhappily scarcely anything is perfectly plain, but what is also perfectly common.

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Jean Paul Friedrich Richter,” Edinburgh Review No. 91, Art. 7 (1827-06)

Dave — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 21:51:33 +0000

For the great law of culture is: Let each become all that he was created capable of being; expand, if possible, to his full growth; resisting all impediments, casting off all foreign, especially all noxious adhesions; and show himself at length in his own shape and stature, be these what they may.

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Jean Paul Friedrich Richter,” Edinburgh Review No. 91, Art. 7 (1827-06)

Dave — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 21:21:05 +0000

There is no uniform of excellence, either in physical or spiritual nature: all genuine things are what they ought to be. The reindeer is good and beautiful, and so likewise is the elephant. In literature it is the same.

Carlyle, Thomas -- “The State of German Literature,” Edinburgh Review No. 92, Art. 2 (1827-10)

Dave — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 22:12:53 +0000

… [T]he three great elements of modern civilization, Gunpowder, Printing, and the Protestant Religion ….

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“The State of German Literature,” Edinburgh Review No. 92, Art. 2 (1827-10)
(Source)

A review of Franz Horn's The Poetry and Oratory of the Germans, from Luther's Time to the Present (1822-1824), and Outlines for the History and Criticism of Polite Literature in German, 1790-1818 (1819).

Collected in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Varnhagen von Ense’s Memoirs,” London and Westminster Review, No. 62 (1838-12)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Beautiful it is to see and understand that no worth, known or unknown, can die even in this earth. The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green; it flows and flows, it joins itself with other veins and veinlets; one day, it will start forth as a visible perennial well.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“Varnhagen von Ense’s Memoirs,” London and Westminster Review, No. 62 (1838-12)
(Source)

A review of three books involving Lady Rahel Varnhagen von Ense.

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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)

This phrase is widely attributed to Carlyle, but without any actual citation to his works I could find. The earliest ascription to Carlyle of this phrase seems to be in Fulton Sheen, Peace of Soul, ch. 13 (1949); given the popularity of Sheen's book, if he misquoted and/or misattributed the quotation to Carlyle, the error may have stuck.

It's (also, additionally) possible that this phrase was slightly changed and re-attributed from the words of Engish writer John Ruskin (1819-1900), who considered Carlyle a mentor: "I wonder not so much at what people suffer as what they lose." While, again, I cannot find a primary source for that, it is attributed to Ruskin in Arthur Winnington, A Mission of the Spirit (1906) and in the literary journal The Dial, Vol. 59, No. 706 (1915-11-25).

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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)

Variants include "one less rascal" and "one less scoundrel."

Widely attributed to Carlyle back to the late 19th Century (e.g., 1873, 1876, 1876), during his lifetime. While that should make a misattribution or misquote less likely, thus far I cannot find the above in online searches of his body of work, nor any references to works that would include it.

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:22:23 +0000

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).

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:57:54 +0000

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).

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 14:20:37 +0000

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).

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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
(Misattributed)

Carlyle uses this phrase in his The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 1, ch. 2 (1.1.2) (1837), but brackets it in quotations, and prefaces it with "For indeed it is well said ...." Nevertheless, the phrase is often misattributed directly to Carlyle.

The second half of the phrase (and sometimes the whole thing) has also been misattributed to Johann von Goethe, as "The eye sees only what the eye brings means of seeing." This is not found in Goethe's work, but may be distorted from a line in the Prologue to Goethe's Faust: "Each one sees what he carries in his heart."

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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
(Misattributed)

This quotation is widely attributed to Carlyle (e.g. (1896)), but, though sounding like something he might have said, it does not appear in his works.

Instead, it is actually a quotation from from G. H. Lewes, Life of Goethe, ch. 3 (1855) [emphasis mine]:

Instead, therefore, of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance. Our strength is measured by our plastic power. From the same materials one man builds palaces, another hovels, one warehouses, another villas; bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the architect can make them something else. Thus it is that in the same family, in the same circumstances, one man rears a stately edifice, whilst his brother, vacillating and incompetent, lives for ever among ruins; the block of granite which was an obstacle on the pathway of the weak, becomes a stepping-stone on the pathway of the strong.

George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) was an English philosopher and literary critic (and enamorata of Mary Ann Evans, a.k.a. George Eliot). Life of Goethe was one of his most popular works.

The cross-pollination to Carlyle is likely from Carlyle's deep friendship with Goethe and the numerous essays he wrote about the man and his works, as well as Carlyle being a pervasively-known writer of the period. A casual citation of the pith of this quote to a work called Life of Goethe could easily have become misattributed to the better-known Goethe enthusiast, Carlyle.

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Spurious)

Dave — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 23:04:44 +0000

A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Spurious)
(Source)

Attributed with this wording to Carlyle by Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends And Influence People, ch. 1 (1936). Though Carlyle wrote numerous times on character and greatness, this phrase (or variants of it) cannot be found in Carlyle's known works.

The earliest attribution of something like this to Carlyle comes from a sermon by John Timothy Stone at the Northfield Young Women's Conference (1908-07-07): "You can discover a great man, or see a great man, by the way he treats little men."

It subsequently shows up, variously, mostly in religious contexts, e.g.:

"A great man shows his greatness by manner in which he treats little men." [Unattributed (1913)]
"The measure of a great man is the way in which he treats little men." [George E. Mayer (1916-05-25)]

John Timothy Stone (as above) published Christianity in Action (1930), six years before Carnegie's book. In ch. 62 "Friends as You Go," he used the same phrasing Carnegie did six years later, again attributing it to Carlyle. It's been suggested Carnegie drew the quotation from Stone's book.

See also Eldridge (1948), which discusses numerous parallels to this sentiment.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Chartism, ch. 1 “Condition-of-England Question” (1840)

Dave — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 21:01:03 +0000

A feeling very generally exists that the condition and disposition of the Working Classes is a rather ominous matter at present; that something ought to be said, something ought to be done, in regard to it. […] To us individually this matter appears, and has for many years appeared, to be the most ominous of all practical matters whatever; a matter in regard to which if something be not done, something will do itself one day, and in a fashion that will please nobody.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Chartism, ch. 1 “Condition-of-England Question” (1840)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great, Book 4, ch. 3 (1858–1865)

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 21:29:10 +0000

“Genius” (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all).

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great, Book 4, ch. 3 (1858–1865)
(Source)

Usually misquoted as "Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," which is sometimes misattributed to Samuel Johnson.

See Doyle (1886).

See also more discussion here about the quote.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 1, ch. 3 “Manchester Insurrection” (1843)

Dave — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 23:01:43 +0000

How can there be any remedy in insurrection? It is a mere announcement of the disease, — visible now even to sons of Night. Insurrection usually gains little; usually wastes how much. One of its worst kinds of waste, to say nothing of the rest, is that of irritating and exasperating men against each other, by violence done, which is always sure to be injustice done; for violence does even justice unjustly.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 1, ch. 3 “Manchester Insurrection” (1843)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 1, ch. 3 “Manchester Insurrection” (1843)

Dave — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 21:22:54 +0000

“A fair day’s-wages for a fair day’s-work:” it is as just a demand as Governed men ever made of Governing. It is the everlasting right of man. Indisputable as Gospels, as arithmetical multiplication-tables: it must and will have itself fulfilled.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 1, ch. 3 “Manchester Insurrection” (1843)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 2, ch. 8 “Unworking Aristocracy” (1843)

Dave — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 20:27:47 +0000

In a valiant suffering for others, not in a slothful making others suffer for us, did nobleness ever lie.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 2, ch. 8 “Unworking Aristocracy” (1843)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 9 “Working Aristocracy” (1843)

Dave — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:55:55 +0000

In brief, all this Mammon-Gospel, of Supply-and-demand, Competition, Laissez-faire, and Devil take the hindmost, begins to be one of the shabbiest Gospels ever preached on Earth; or altogether the shabbiest.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 9 “Working Aristocracy” (1843)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 10 “Plugson of Undershot” (1843)

Dave — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:20:01 +0000

Money is miraculous. What miraculous facilities has it yielded, will it yield us; but also what never-imagined confusions, obscurations has it brought in; down almost to total extinction of the moral-sense in large masses of mankind!

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 10 “Plugson of Undershot” (1843)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 11 “Labour” (1843)

Dave — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:16:27 +0000

Every noble work is at first impossible. In very truth, for every noble work the possibilities will lie diffused through Immensity; inarticulate, undiscoverable except to faith.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 11 “Labour” (1843)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 11 “Labour” (1843)

Dave — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 22:53:36 +0000

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose; he has found it, and will follow it!

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 3, ch. 11 “Labour” (1843)
(Source)

For a discussion of this and related quotations, see: Get Your Happiness Out of Your Work, or You’ll Never Know What Happiness Is – Quote Investigator®.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 4, ch. 8 “The Didactic” (1843)

Dave — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 00:58:51 +0000

As dark misery settles down on us, and our refuges of lies fall in pieces one after one, the hearts of men, now at last serious, will turn to refuges of truth. The eternal stars shine out again, so soon as it is dark enough.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 4, ch. 8 “The Didactic” (1843)
(Source)

More discussion of this imagery and quotation here: Quote Origin: The Eternal Stars Shine Out Again, So Soon As It Is Dark Enough – Quote Investigator®.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 3 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 16:48:40 +0000

Councillors of State sit plotting, and playing their high chess-game, whereof the pawns are Men.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 3 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This passage first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 8, No. 47 (1833-11).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 4 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 21:27:45 +0000

No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 4 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 01 May 2025 17:45:12 +0000

How much lies in Laughter: the cipher-key, wherewith we decipher the whole man! Some men wear an everlasting barren simper; in the smile of others lies a cold glitter as of ice: the fewest are able to laugh, what can be called laughing, but only sniff and titter and snigger from the throat outwards; or at best, produce some whiffling husky cachinnation, as if they were laughing through wool: of none such comes good. The man who cannot laugh is not only fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; but his whole life is already a treason and a stratagem.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 4 (1834)
(Source)

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 8, No. 47 (1883-11).

"Treasons, stratagems, and spoils" comes from Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 92ff, where it's used to describe "the man that hath no music in himself."

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 8 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 15:59:50 +0000

Strange enough how creatures of the human-kind shut their eyes to plainest facts; and by the mere inertia of Oblivion and Stupidity, live at ease in the midst of Wonders and Terrors. But indeed man is, and was always, a blockhead and dullard; much readier to feel and digest, than to think and consider.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 8 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 8, No. 48 (1833-12).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 10 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 21:56:37 +0000

Wonder is the basis of worship.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 10 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh. This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 8, No. 48 (1833-12).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 4 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 17:18:26 +0000

Not what I Have but what I Do is my Kingdom.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 4 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 50 (1834-02).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 6 (1834)

Dave — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 16:02:51 +0000

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 (1834)
(Source)

From Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1.3.6 ("The end aimed at is not knowledge but action").

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 51 (1834-03) -- Book 2, ch. 5-7.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 7 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 13:55:51 +0000

With Stupidity and sound Digestion man may front much.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 7 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 51 (1834-03) - Book 2, ch. 5-7.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 7 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 16:15:36 +0000

Some comfort it would have been, could I, like a Faust, have fancied myself tempted and tormented of the Devil; for a Hell, as I imagine, without Life, though only diabolic Life, were more frightful: but in our age of Down-pulling and Disbelief, the very Devil has been pulled down, you cannot so much as believe in a Devil. To me the Universe was all void of Life, of Purpose, of Volition, even of Hostility: it was one huge, dead, immeasurable Steam-engine, rolling on, in its dead indifference, to grind me limb from limb.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 8 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 17:42:50 +0000

Such I hold to be the genuine use of Gunpowder: that it makes all men tall.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 8 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This passage first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 52 (1834-04).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 8 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 18:05:23 +0000

At length, after infinite effort, the two parties come into actual juxtaposition; and Thirty stands fronting Thirty, each with a gun in his hand. Straightway the word “Fire!” is given: and they blow the souls out of one another; and in place of sixty brisk useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it must bury, and anew shed tears for. Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the Devil is, not the smallest! They lived far enough apart; were the entirest strangers; nay, in so wide a Universe, there was even, unconsciously, by Commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them. How then? Simpleton! their Governors had fallen-out; and, instead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make these poor blockheads shoot.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 8 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh, describing thirty English village boys from Dumdrudge being sent to war and encountering thirty boys from a similar French village.

This passage first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 52 (1834-04).

Emma Goldman in her lecture (1908-04-26), "Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty," given at Walton's Pavilion, San Francisco, appears to paraphrase this, while attributing it as an (unsourced) quote from Carlyle:

War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against each other.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 9 (1834)

Dave — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:49:32 +0000

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 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 52 (1834-04).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 3 (1834)

Dave — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 16:34:09 +0000

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 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 54 (1834-06) - Book 3, ch. 1-5.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 3 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 19:58:29 +0000

Speech is too often not, as the Frenchman defined it, the art of concealing Thought; but of quite stifling and suspending Thought, so that there is none to conceal.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 3 (1834)
(Source)

Referring to Talleyrand. Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This passage first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 54 (1834-06).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 4 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 22:53:25 +0000

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 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 54 (1834-06).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 6 (1834)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 10, No. 55 (1834-07).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 7 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 21:32:20 +0000

It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the center of gravity of the Universe.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 7 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh. This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 10, No. 55 (1834-07).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 7 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 18:42:27 +0000

Hero-worship exists, has existed, and will forever exist, universally among mankind.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 7 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This passage first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 10, No. 55 (1834-07).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 8 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 21:45:45 +0000

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 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 10, No. 55 (1834-07).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 8 (1834)

Dave — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 19:36:03 +0000

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.

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 2, ch. 4 (1.2.4) (1837)

Dave — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 20:14:16 +0000

France was long a “Despotism tempered by Epigrams.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 2, ch. 4 (1.2.4) (1837)
(Source)

Though given in quotation marks, Carlyle is apparently "quoting" himself.

This quotation is commonly given on its own, though, since Carlyle's thesis at this point in his history is that the royal government had largely become irrelevant in the nation, he continues:

... and now, it would seem, the Epigrams have got the upper hand.
[Source]

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 3, ch. 7 (1.3.7) (1837)

Dave — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 22:08:08 +0000

To a shower of gold most things are penetrable.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 3, ch. 7 (1.3.7) (1837)
(Source)

On Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil's use of bribery to obtain, in May 1788, an advance copy of a royal edict depriving the Parlement of Paris of its functions.

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 3, ch. 9 (1.3.9) (1837)

Dave — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 19:59:36 +0000

This is that same Foulon named âme damnée du Parlement; a man grown gray in treachery, in griping, projecting, intriguing and iniquity: who once when it was objected, to some finance-scheme of his, “What will the people do?” — made answer, in the fire of discussion, “The people may eat grass”: hasty words, which fly abroad irrevocable, — and will send back tidings!

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 3, ch. 9 (1.3.9) (1837)
(Source)

Writing of Joseph-François Foullon de Doué (1715-1789), French politician, the "damned soul of the Parliament," and a Controller-General of Finances under Louis XVI. Widely hated by "the people" for such statements and actions, he was one of the early targets of the French Revolution, as told in Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. He was marched from his country hiding place back to Paris, with the mob shoving grass and hay into his face and mouth. He became the first recorded person to have been lynched from a lamp post. (The rope broke three times, so he was instead beheaded and his grass-stuffed head marched about on a pike.)

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 5, ch. 5 (1.5.5) (1837)

Dave — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:22:39 +0000

O poor mortals, how ye make this Earth bitter for each other; this fearful and wonderful Life fearful and horrible; and Satan has his place in all hearts! Such agonies and ragings and wailings ye have, and have had, in all times: — to be buried all, in so deep silence; and the salt sea is not swoln with your tears.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 5, ch. 5 (1.5.5) (1837)
(Source)

As the prospect of violence mounts within Paris on the night of 13 July 1789. The next day was the storming of the Bastille.

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 6, ch. 3 (1.6.3) (1837)

Dave — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 18:04:43 +0000

Where this will end? In the Abyss, one may prophecy; whither all Delusions are, at all moments, traveling; where this Delusion has now arrived. For if there be a Faith, from of old, it is this, as we often repeat, that no Lie can live for ever. The very Truth has to change its vesture, from time to time; and be born again. But all Lies have sentence of death written down against them, and Heaven’s Chancery itself; and, slowly or fast, advance incessantly towards their hour.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 6, ch. 3 (1.6.3) (1837)
(Source)

Carlyle is speaking of the delusion that the wealthy and land-owners of pre-Revolutionary France could forever oppress their tenants with taxes and rent without finally driving them to bloody revolution.

A core phrase here was latched onto by Martin Luther King, Jr., who incorporated it as standard fare in his speeches in the mid- and late 1960s.

We shall overcome, because Carlyle is right, "No lie can live forever."
[Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4]

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 6, ch. 3 (1.6.3) (1837)

Dave — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 22:47:39 +0000

Do nothing, only keep agitating, debating; and things will destroy themselves.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 6, ch. 3 (1.6.3) (1837)
(Source)

On the inactivity of the elected National Assembly leading up to the Revolution.

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 7, ch. 5 (1.7.5) (1837)

Dave — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 21:50:22 +0000

History is a distillation of Rumour.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 7, ch. 5 (1.7.5) (1837)
(Source)

The original is actually embedded in this sentence:

Remarkable [Usher] Maillard, if fame were not an accident, and History a distillation of Rumour, how remarkable wert thou!

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 2, Book 1, ch. 7 (2.1.7) (1837)

Dave — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 02:55:10 +0000

He that has a secret should not only hide it, but hide that he has it to hide.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 2, Book 1, ch. 7 (2.1.7) (1837)
(Source)

Carlyle puts this in quotes, but he is again apparently quoting himself. He later used the phrase in his history of Friedrich II of Prussia (Frederick the Great).

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 2, Book 4, ch. 2 (2.4.2) (1837)

Dave — Fri, 03 May 2024 15:40:45 +0000

For, does the reader inquire into the subject-matter of controversy in this case; what the difference between Orthodoxy or My-doxy and Heterodoxy or Thy-doxy might here be?

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 2, Book 4, ch. 2 (2.4.2) (1837)
(Source)

Writing of the 1791 excommunication of Talleyrand, conflicts between Rome and Paris on bishoprics and loyalty oaths, and burnings of both effigies and heretics.

See Warburton, Sinclair.

Carlyle, Thomas -- The French Revolution: A History, Part 3, Book 1, ch. 4 (3.1.4) (1837)

Dave — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 13:55:29 +0000

There are depths in man that go the length of lowest Hell, as there are heights that reach highest Heaven; — for are not both Heaven and Hell made out of him, made by him, everlasting Miracle and Mystery as he is?

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The French Revolution: A History, Part 3, Book 1, ch. 4 (3.1.4) (1837)
(Source)

Regarding the events of 2 September 1792, and the Commune-ordered massacres of prisoners in the Paris prisons.

This passage was popularized in a slightly paraphrased form 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.

The Edwards version was, in turn, quoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Detroit sermon "The Christian Doctrine of Man" (1958-02-12).

Carlyle, Thomas -- The Life of Friedrich Schiller, Part 2 (1825)

Dave — Thu, 14 May 2026 16:21:01 +0000

The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something: the strongest, by dispensing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. The drop, by continually falling, bores its passage through the hardest rock; the hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
The Life of Friedrich Schiller, Part 2 (1825)
(Source)

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

Dave — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:09:16 +0000

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).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1829-06), “Signs of the Times,” Edinburgh Review No. 98, Art. 7

Dave — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 23:52:09 +0000

No solitary miscreant, scarcely any solitary maniac, would venture on such actions and imaginations, as large communities of sane men have, in such circumstances, entertained as sound wisdom.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1829-06), “Signs of the Times,” Edinburgh Review No. 98, Art. 7
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1829-06), “Signs of the Times,” Edinburgh Review, Vol. 49, No. 98, Art. 7

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Our grand business undoubtedly 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
Essay (1829-06), “Signs of the Times,” Edinburgh Review, Vol. 49, No. 98, Art. 7
(Source)

Review of three 1829 books: Anticipation; or, an Hundred Years Hence; The Rise, Progress, and Present State of Public Opinion in Great Britain; Edward Irvine, The Last Days; or, Discourses on These Our Times.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1829-06), “Signs of the Times,” Edinburgh Review, Vol. 49, No. 98, Art. 7

Dave — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:14:13 +0000

Wonder, indeed, is, on all hands, dying out: it is the sign of uncultivation to wonder.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1830-11), “On History,” Fraser’s Magazine Vol. 2, No. 10.

Dave — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 21:59:39 +0000

History is the essence of innumerable Biographies.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1830-11), “On History,” Fraser’s Magazine Vol. 2, No. 10.
(Source)

Collected as "History," Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).

A year and a half later, in his essay "Biography" (first published in Fraser's Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 28 (1832-05)), as he was wont to do, Carlyle anonymously quoted himself ("'History,' it has been said, 'is the essence of innumerable Biographies.'").

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1832-05) “Boswell’s Life of Johnson,” Fraser’s Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 28

Dave — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:36:35 +0000

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
Essay (1832-05) “Boswell’s Life of Johnson,” Fraser’s Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 28
(Source)

Reviewing James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.; including a Tour to the Hebrides (1831 ed.). Collected in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1832-05) “Boswell’s Life of Johnson,” Fraser’s Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 28

Dave — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 15:30:06 +0000

All work is as seed sown; it grows and spreads, and sows itself anew.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1832-05) “Boswell’s Life of Johnson,” Fraser’s Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 28

Dave — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 23:22:27 +0000

Whoso belongs only to his own age, and reverences only its gilt Popinjays or smoot-smeared Mumbojumbos, must needs die with it.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1832-08), “Goethe’s Works,” Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 19, Art. 1

Dave — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:08:40 +0000

Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness on the confines of two everlasting hostile empires, — Necessity and Free Will.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1832-08), “Goethe’s Works,” Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 19, Art. 1
(Source)

A review of Goethes Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe letzer Hand [Goethe's Works. Completed, Final Edition (1827-1830). Reprinted in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1845).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1837-12-06), “On Sir Walter Scott,” The London and Westminster Review, No. 12/55, Art. 2 (1838-01)

Dave — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 15:23:19 +0000

Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1837-12-06), “On Sir Walter Scott,” The London and Westminster Review, No. 12/55, Art. 2 (1838-01)
(Source)

Review of J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Baronet, 6 vols. (1837). Collected in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1837-12-06), “On Sir Walter Scott,” The London and Westminster Review, No. 12/55, Art. 2 (1838-01)

Dave — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:41:56 +0000

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offense.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1837-12-06), “On Sir Walter Scott,” The London and Westminster Review, No. 12/55, Art. 2 (1838-01)

Dave — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 17:30:28 +0000

All greatness is unconscious, or it is little and naught.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1837-12-06), “On Sir Walter Scott” The London and Westminster Review, No. 12/55, Art. 2 (1838-01)

Dave — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 23:05:40 +0000

For there is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a biography, the life of a man; also, it may be said, there is no life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1837-12-06), “On Sir Walter Scott” The London and Westminster Review, No. 12/55, Art. 2 (1838-01)
(Source)

Review of J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Baronet, 6 vols. (1837). Collected in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1843-07), “Dr. Francia,” Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 62, Art. 12

Dave — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 22:17:27 +0000

After all, brevity is the soul of wit! There is endless merit in a man’s knowing when to have done. The stupidest man, if he will be brief in proportion, may fairly claim some hearing from us: he too, the stupidest man, has seen something, heard something, which is his own, distinctly peculiar, never seen or heard by any man in this world before; let him tell us that, and if it were possible, nothing more than that, — he , brief in proportion shall be welcome!

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1843-07), “Dr. Francia,” Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 62, Art. 12
(Source)

Reviewing Rengger and Longchamp, Essai Historique sur la Révolution de Paraguay , et le Gouvernement Dictatorial du Docteur Francia (1827), et al.

Reprinted in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1845).

See Shakespeare.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1850-02-01), “The Present Time,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 1

Dave — Thu, 16 May 2024 14:29:13 +0000

But in the days that are now passing over us, even fools are arrested to ask the meaning of them; few of the generations of men have seen more impressive days. Days of endless calamity, disruption, dislocation, confusion worse confounded: if they are not days of endless hope too, then they are days of utter despair. For it is not a small hope that will suffice, the ruin being clearly, either in action or in prospect, universal. There must be a new world, if there is to be any world at all!

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-02-01), “The Present Time,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 1
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1850-02-01), “The Present Time,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 1

Dave — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 20:36:32 +0000

My friend, brag not yet of our American cousins! Their quantity of cotton, dollars, industry and resources, I believe to be almost unspeakable; but I can by no means worship the like of these. What great human soul, what great thought, what great noble thing that one could worship, or loyally admire, has yet been produced there? None: the American cousins have yet done none of these things.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-02-01), “The Present Time,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 1
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1850-04-01), “Downing Street,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 3

Dave — Thu, 23 May 2024 14:30:40 +0000

Reverence for Human Worth, earnest devout search for it and encouragement of it, loyal furtherance and obedience to it: this, I say, is the outcome and essence of all true “religions,” and was and ever will be.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-04-01), “Downing Street,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 3
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1850-04-01), “Downing Street,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 3

Dave — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 19:10:45 +0000

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-04-01), “Downing Street,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 3
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1850-04-01), “Downing Street,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 3

Dave — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 19:02:31 +0000

Tell me what kind of man governs a People, you tell me, with much exactness, what the net sum-total of social worth in that People has for some time been.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-04-01), “Downing Street,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 3
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1850-05-01), “Stump-Orator,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 5

Dave — Thu, 30 May 2024 14:33:19 +0000

If the young aspirant is not rich enough for Parliament, and is deterred by the basilisks or otherwise from entering on Law or Church, and cannot altogether reduce his human intellect to the beaverish condition, or satisfy himself with the prospect of making money, — what becomes of him in such case, which is naturally the case of very many, and ever of more? In such case there remains but one outlet for him, and notably enough that too is a talking one: the outlet of Literature, of trying to write Books.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-05-01), “Stump-Orator,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 5
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1850-08-01), “Jesuitism,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 8

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The fine arts once divorcing themselves from truth are quite certain to fall mad, if they do not die, and get flown away with by the Devil, which latter is only the second-worst result for us. Truth, fact, is the life of all things; falsity, “fiction” or whatever it may call itself, is certain to be death, and is already insanity, to whatever thing takes up with it.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-08-01), “Jesuitism,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 8
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Journal (1870-06-23)

Dave — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:03:04 +0000

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 (1870-06-23)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:20:08 +0000

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
Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 1 (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:46:44 +0000

It is well said, in every sense, that a man’s religion is the chief fact with regard to him. A man’s, or a nation of men’s. By religion I do not mean here the church-creed which he professes, the articles of faith which he will sign and, in words or otherwise, assert; not this wholly, in many cases not this at all. We see men of all kinds of professed creeds attain to almost all degrees of worth or worthlessness under each or any of them. This is not what I call religion, this profession and assertion; which is often only a profession and assertion from the outworks of the man, from the mere argumentative region of him, if even so deep as that.
But the thing a man does practically believe (and this is often enough without asserting it even to himself, much less to others); the thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for certain, concerning his vital relations to this mysterious Universe, and his duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the primary thing for him, and creatively determines all the rest. That is his religion; or, it may be, his mere scepticism and no-religion: the manner it is in which he feels himself to be spiritually related to the Unseen World or No-World; and I say, if you tell me what that is, you tell me to a very great extent what the man is, what the kind of things he will do is.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 22:27:50 +0000

Some speculators have a short way of accounting for the Pagan religion: mere quackery, priestcraft, and dupery, say they; no sane man ever did believe it, — merely contrived to persuade other men, not worthy of the name of sane, to believe it! It will be often our duty to protest against this sort of hypothesis about men’s doings and history; and I here, on the very threshold, protest against it in reference to Paganism, and to all other isms by which man has ever for a length of time striven to walk in this world. They have all had a truth in them, or men would not have taken them up. Quackery and dupery do abound; in religions, above all in the more advanced decaying stages of religions, they have fearfully abounded: but quackery was never the originating influence in such things; it was not the health and life of such things, but their disease, the sure precursor of their being about to die!

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 22:26:53 +0000

The Thibet priests have methods of their own of discovering what Man is Greatest, fit to be supreme over them. Bad methods: but are they so much worse than our methods, — of understanding him to be always the eldest-born of a certain genealogy? Alas, it is a difficult thing to find good methods for!

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

Contrasting the role and selection of the Grand Lama (Dalai Lama) with that of the Pope.

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 1, (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 22:33:32 +0000

No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 22:39:04 +0000

In that strange island Iceland, — burst up, the geologists say, by fire from the bottom of the sea; a wild land of barrenness and lava; swallowed many months of every year in black tempests, yet with a wild gleaming beauty in summertime; towering up there, stern and grim, in the North Ocean with its snow jokuls, roaring geysers, sulphur-pools and horrid volcanic chasms, like the waste chaotic battle-field of Frost and Fire; — where of all places we least looked for Literature or written memorials, the record of these things was written down.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

Speaking of the Eddas (e.g.).

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 1, (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one. In one man’s head alone, there it dwells as yet. One man alone of the whole world believes it; there is one man against all men.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 2 (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 19:26:47 +0000

We do not find, of the Christian Religion either, that it always disdained the sword, when once it had got one.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

On accusations of Islam being spread "by the sword."

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 2 (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 21:22:09 +0000

His Religion is not an easy one: with rigorous fasts, lavations, strict complex formulas, prayers five times a day, and abstinence from wine, it did not “succeed by being an easy religion.” As if indeed any religion, or cause holding of religion, could succeed by that! It is a calumny on men to say that they are roused to heroic action by ease, hope of pleasure, recompense, — sugar-plums of any kind, in this world or the next! In the meanest mortal there lies something nobler.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

Speaking of Muhammad and Islam.

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 2 (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 19:44:21 +0000

In the meanest mortal there lies something nobler. The poor swearing soldier, hired to be shot, has his “honor of a soldier,” different from drill-regulations and the shilling a day. It is not to taste sweet things, but to do noble and true things, and vindicate himself under God’s Heaven as a god-made Man, that the poorest son of Adam dimly longs. Show him the way of doing that, the dullest day-drudge kindles into a hero. They wrong man greatly who say he is to be seduced by ease.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 23:48:04 +0000

Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-12), “The Hero as Poet,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 21:40:31 +0000

Can the man say, Fiat lux, Let there be light; and out of chaos make a world? Precisely as there is light in himself, will he accomplish this.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-12), “The Hero as Poet,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

Talking about Shakespeare and his creativity.

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 3 (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-12), “The Hero as Poet,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 22:00:23 +0000

But his [Shakespeare’s] laughter seems to pour from him in floods; he heaps all manner of ridiculous nicknames on the butt he is bantering, tumbles and tosses him in all sorts of horse-play; you would say, with his whole heart laughs. And then, if not always the finest, it is always a genial laughter. Not at mere weakness, at misery or poverty; never. No man who can laugh, what we call laughing, will laugh at these things. It is some poor character only desiring to laugh, and have the credit of wit, that does so. Laughter means sympathy; good laughter is not “the crackling of thorns under the pot.” Even at stupidity and pretension this Shakspeare does not laugh otherwise than genially. Dogberry and Verges tickle our very hearts; and we dismiss them covered with explosions of laughter: but we like the poor fellows only the better for our laughing; and hope they will get on well there, and continue Presidents of the City-watch. Such laughter, like sunshine on the deep sea, is very beautiful to me.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-12), “The Hero as Poet,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The spelling of Shakespeare's name is as used by Carlyle (and is one of the variants Shakespeare actually used).

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 3 (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-15), “The Hero as Priest,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:50:44 +0000

No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, could ever compel the soul of a man to believe or to disbelieve: it is his own indefeasible light, that judgment of his; he will reign, and believe there, by the grace of God alone!

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-15), “The Hero as Priest,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 4 (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-15), “The Hero as Priest,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 19:07:01 +0000

Is not every true Reformer, by the nature of him, a Priest first of all? He appeals to Heaven’s invisible justice against Earth’s visible force; knows that it, the invisible, is strong and alone strong. He is a believer in the divine truth of things; a seer, seeing through the shows of things; a worshipper, in one way or the other, of the divine truth of things; a Priest, that is. If he be not first a Priest, he will never be good for much as a Reformer.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-19), “The Hero as Man of Letters,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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
Lecture (1840-05-19), “The Hero as Man of Letters,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 5 (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-19), “The Hero as Man of Letters,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:07:56 +0000

For the Scepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-19), “The Hero as Man of Letters,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 23:32:04 +0000

In Books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream. Mighty fleets and armies, harbors and arsenals, vast cities, high-domed, many-engined, — they are precious, great: but what do they become? Agamemnon, the many Agamemnons, Pericleses, and their Greece; all is gone now to some ruined fragments, dumb mournful wrecks and blocks: but the Books of Greece! There Greece, to every thinker, still very literally lives: can be called up again into life. No magic Rune is stranger than a Book. All that Mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of Books.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:12:13 +0000

Money? He will say: “Take my money, since you can, and it is so desirable to you; take it, — and take yourself away with it; and leave me alone to my work here. I am still here; can still work, after all the money you have taken from me!” But if they come to him, and say, “Acknowledge a Lie; pretend to say you are worshipping God, when you are not doing it: believe not the thing that you find true, but the thing that I find, or pretend to find true!” He will answer: “No; by God’s help, no! You may take my purse; but I cannot have my moral Self annihilated. 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, and revolt against you, and, on the whole, front all manner of extremities, accusations and confusions, in defence of that!”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 6 (1841).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 11:58:12 +0000

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!

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 13:45:31 +0000

Self-deception once yielded to, all other deceptions follow naturally more and more.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 20:06:10 +0000

Truly it is a sad thing for a people, as for a man, to fall into Scepticism, into dilettantism, insincerity; not to know Sincerity when they see it. For this world, and for all worlds, what curse is so fatal? The heart lying dead, the eye cannot see.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:11:06 +0000

Dupes indeed are many: but, of all dupes, there is none so fatally situated as he who lives in undue terror of being duped.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Letter (1822-03-15) to John Carlyle

Dave — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 19:02:26 +0000

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 (1822-03-15) to John Carlyle
(Source)

Writing to his brother.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Letter (1836-04-29) to Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I grow daily to honor Facts more and more, and Theory less and less.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Letter (1836-04-29) to Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Letter (1837-06-09) to John Sterling

Dave — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:32:52 +0000

The Public is an old woman. Let her maunder and mumble.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Letter (1837-06-09) to John Sterling
(Source)

Regarding critics who think writing styles can or should be be easily changed.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Notebook (1830-10)

Dave — Thu, 21 May 2026 18:46:05 +0000

Beware of speaking. Speech is human, Silence is divine: yet also brutish and dead; therefore we must learn both arts, they are both difficult.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Notebook (1830-10)
(Source)

Carlyle further developed this theme in Sartor Resartus (1834).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Notebook entry (1829)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Tell a man he is brave, and you help him to become so.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Notebook entry (1829)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Poem (1825?), “My Own Four Walls,” st. 4-5

Dave — Thu, 28 May 2026 18:43:47 +0000

King George has palaces of pride,
And armed grooms must ward those halls;
With one stout bolt I safe abide
Within my own four walls.

Not all his men may sever this,
It yields to friends’, not monarchs’, calls;
My whinstone house my castle is —
I have my own four walls.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Poem (1825?), “My Own Four Walls,” st. 4-5
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Poem (1837-08), “Today,” st. 1

Dave — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 22:58:28 +0000

So here hath been dawning
Another blue Day:
Think wilt thou let it
Slip useless away.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Poem (1837-08), “Today,” st. 1
(Source)

This poem is usually called "Today" or "To-day," though in its first appearance I can find (The Monthly Repository, Vol. 11 (1837-08)) it is titled "Lilliputian."

The poem was resurfaced in Carlyle's Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1838-1839) in Vol. 1, Appendix 1 "Fractions (1823-1833)," item No. 7. This (with a date of 1840) is usually given as the citation.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Remark (1850-01-12)

Dave — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 21:43:34 +0000

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
Remark (1850-01-12)
(Source)

Remark quoted by Joseph Neuberg in a letter to his sister. The letter was published in an essay (1884-08), "Carlyle and Neuberg," MacMillan's Magazine, Vol. 50. The author is not noted, but was a friend of Neuberg and his sister.

The same letter is cited in David A. Wilson, Life of Carlyle, Vol. 4 "Carlyle at His Zenith (1848-1853), ch. 10 (1927).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Speech (1866-04-02), “On the Choice of Books,” Inaugural Address as Lord Rector, University of Edinburgh

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

For if a good speaker — an eloquent speaker — is not speaking the truth, is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Speech (1866-04-02), “On the Choice of Books,” Inaugural Address as Lord Rector, University of Edinburgh
(Source)

Often rendered: "Can there be a more horrible object in existence than an eloquent man not speaking the truth?"

Regarding oration/declamation as an academic subject, and deemphasizing the importance of how something is said than what is being said.

See also Euripides (405 BC), Publilius Syrus (c. 40 BC).

Carlyle, Thomas -- Speech (1866-04-02), “On the Choice of Books,” Inaugural Address as Lord Rector, University of Edinburgh

Dave — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 19:07:25 +0000

If you find many people who are hard and indifferent to you in a world that you consider to be unhospitable and cruel — as often, indeed, happens to a tender-hearted, stirring young creature — you will also find there are noble hearts who will look kindly on you, and their help will be precious to you beyond price.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Speech (1866-04-02), “On the Choice of Books,” Inaugural Address as Lord Rector, University of Edinburgh
(Source)