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)

Widely attributed to Carlyle, but not found in his writings. This quotation first appears in the late 19th Century -- overlapping Carlyle's actual life -- but I cannot find it any of his written works, and no references I could find provide a source. The likely (non-exclusive) options:

It was recorded (in an unknown source) from something Carlyle said in conversation or in a lecture not elsewhere recorded.
The phrasing was early on distorted from Carlyle's actual speech or writing, e.g., for simplification, and that's the version that stuck in popular culture.

Even the early sources I do find use it as column filler, as a stand-alone quotation, or in passing in another writing.

New England Journal of Education, Vol. 6, No. 10 (1877-09-13)
Queen's Collage Journal (Supplement), Vol. 5, No. 12 (1878-04-27)
The Argonaut (1878-07-06)
Edward C. Bass (ed.), Biographical Hand-Book of the Gem Portrait Gallery, "Gems of Prose and Poetry" (1886)
Tryon Edwards (ed.), Dictionary of Thoughts, "Conversation" (1891)
Ann Bachelor (ed.), The Carlyle Year-Book, February 6 (1900)

In sum, Carlyle very likely said this, or something like it, but it's original source is not recorded online at the present time.

WIST Quotations

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Attributed)