Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

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.

Quotes

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.
No sadder proof can be given by man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.
A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.
The Courage that we all prize and seek is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.
When words leave off, music begins.
Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one
In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

Government
Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as eternity; speech is as shallow as time.

Silence
The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

Leadership
Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one.
Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.

Silence
Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

Work
Happy are the people whose annals are blank in history books
Do the duty which lieth nearest to thee! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.
In private life I never knew anyone interfere with other people's disputes but he heartily repented of it.
Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one rascal less in the world.
True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart. It is not contempt; its essence is love. It issues not in laugther, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper.
In idleness there is a perpetual despair.
It is not a lucky word, this name "impossible"; no good comes of those who have it so often in their mouths.
Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.