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Portrait of Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

(1795–1881) Novelist Kingdom of Great Britain

917 quotes in 2329 categories

Thomas Carlyle was a novelist from the Kingdom of Great Britain, best known for Works of Thomas Carlyle Vol. 23.

Quick Facts About Thomas Carlyle

Born: December 4, 1795
Died: February 5, 1881
Nationality: Kingdom of Great Britain
Profession: Novelist
Notable works: Works of Thomas Carlyle Vol. 23
Known for: Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh University, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History, Past and Present, History of Friedrich II of Prussia
Spouse: Jane Welsh Carlyle

About Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. Known as the "sage of Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the Victorian era.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Awards & Honors

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts order Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Pour le Mérite

Quotes by Thomas Carlyle · Page 2

My books are friends that never fail me.

Book

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All greatness is unconscious, or it is little and naught.

Greatness

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All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but…

Deep things

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There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is…

Calling

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One is weary of hearing about the omnipotence of money. I will say rather that, for a genuine man, it is not…

Evil

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“Silence is deep as Eternity, speech is shallow as Time.”

Communication

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Earnestness alone makes life eternity.

Earnestness

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Clean undeniable right, clear undeniable might: either of these once ascertained puts an end to battle. All battle is a confused experiment…

Battle

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This London City, with all of its houses, palaces, steam-engines, cathedrals, and huge immeasurable traffic an tumult, what is it but a…

Bricks

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Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

Hard

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Every man is my superior in that I may learn from him.

Education

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The mystery of a person, indeed, is ever divine to him that has a sense for the godlike.

Divine

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Variety is the condition of harmony.

Conditions

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There are female dandies as well as clothes-wearing men; and the former are as objectionable as the latter.

Clothes

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Experience is the best of schoolmasters, only the school fees are heavy

Experience

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Doubt of any kind cannot be resolved except by action.

Action

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Battles, in these ages, are transacted by mechanism; with the slightest possible development of human individuality or spontaneity; men now even die,…

Age

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Silence is more eloquent than words.

Eloquent

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The beginning of all wisdom is to look fixedly on clothes, or even with armed eyesight, till they become transparent.

Clothes

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Thirty millions, mostly fools.

England

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The true eye for talent presupposes the true reverence for it.

Eye

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Is not every meanest day the confluence of two eternities?

Confluence

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Pain was not given thee merely to be miserable under; learn from it, turn it to account.

Accounts

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There is often more spiritual force in a proverb than in whole philosophical systems.

Force

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What the light of your mind, which is the direct inspiration of the Almighty, pronounces incredible, that, in God's name, leave uncredited.…

Almighty

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Thomas Carlyle by topic

Men (224) Inspirational (95) Love (57) Life (57) World (53) Time (52) Books (41) History (40) Soul (39) Ifs (37) Work (32) Nature (32) Truth (29) Lying (29) Kind (29)