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
If Hero means sincere man, why may not every one of us be a Hero?
Speech is of time, silence is of eternity.
When we can drain the Ocean into mill-ponds, and bottle up the Force of Gravity, to be sold by retail, in gas jars; then may we hope to comprehend the infinitudes of man's soul under formulas of Profit and Loss; and rule over this too, as over a patent engine, by checks, and valves, and balances.
Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.
The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.
Let one who wants to move and convince others, first be convinced and moved themselves. If a person speaks with genuine earnestness the thoughts, the emotion and the actual condition of their own heart, others will listen because we all are knit together by the tie of sympathy.
Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.
Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one.
The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only.
Let each become all that he was created capable of being.
Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing can teach us better than our understanding of them. This is one of the best ways of self-education.
Every noble work is at first impossible.
Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.