No good book, or good thing of any sort, shows its best face at first. — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity. — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
“My books are friends that never fail me." ( Letter to his mother, Margaret A. Carlyle ; 17 March 1817)” — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
“All that Mankind has done, thought, gained or been is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of Books. They are… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and author-craft are of small amount… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books. — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
Of all the things which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
“All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been; it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.” — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
A man ought to inquire and find out what he really and truly has an appetite for; what suits his constitution; and… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
Considering the multitude of mortals that handle the pen in these days, and can mostly spell, and write without glaring violations of… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
In the poorest cottage are Books: is one Book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of man has found light,… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
Learn to be good readers, which is perhaps a more difficult thing than you imagine. Learn to be discriminative in your reading;… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
In every man's writings, the character of the writer must lie recorded. — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all. — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
We have not read an author till we have seen his object, whatever it may be, as he saw it. — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
O thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create,… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men. — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such: it is an accident, not a property, of… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
Be a pattern to others, and then all will go well; for as a whole city is affected by the licentious passions and vices… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
The glory of a workman, still more of a master workman, that he does his work well, ought to be his most precious possession;… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
All human things do require to have an ideal in them; to have some soul in them. — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
Insurrection, never so necessary, is a most sad necessity; and governors who wait for that to instruct them are surely getting into the fatalest… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
Let Time and Chance combine, combine! Let Time and Chance combine! The fairest love from heaven above, That love of yours was mine, My… — Thomas Carlyle Copy Share Image
