Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlylewas a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime with certain acclaim in the Victorian era. One of those conferences resulted in his famous work On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History where he explains that the key role in history lies in the actions of the "Great Man", claiming that "History is nothing but the biography of the...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth4 December 1795
History is the essence of innumerable biographies.
Heroism is the divine relation which, in all times, unites a great man to other men.
Universal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here.
Stop a moment, cease your work, and look around you.
Neither in tailoring nor in legislating does man proceed by mere accident.
Every noble crown is, and on Earth will forever be, a crown of thorns.
A good book is the purest essence of a human soul.
Without kindness there can be no true joy.
There are but two ways of paying debt: Increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying out.
The first sin in our universe was Lucifer's self conceit.
Worship is transcendent wonder.
I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
Weak eyes are fondest of glittering objects.
What an enormous magnifier is tradition! How a thing grows in the human memory and in the human imagination, when love, worship, and all that lies in the human heart, is there to encourage it