Quotes By Thomas Carlyle

All great peoples are conservative.

History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion.

A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.

Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance - the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it; better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.

Laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species.

A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.

Wonder is the basis of worship.

I don't pretend to understand the Universe - it's a great deal bigger than I am.

Happy the people whose annals are vacant.

Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.

The spiritual is the parent of the practical.

Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.

The outer passes away; the innermost is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

No ghost was every seen by two pair of eyes.

Conviction never so excellent, is worthless until it coverts itself into conduct.

No pressure, no diamonds.

The real use of gunpowder is to make all men tall.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

Work alone is noble.

Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer.

Teach a parrot the terms 'supply and demand' and you've got an economist.

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.

A man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was.

Necessity dispenseth with decorum.

Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

Silence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time.