Thomas Carlyle (1795 – 1881) was a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, translator, historian, mathematician, and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime with acclaim in the Victorian era. A respected historian, his 1837 book The French Revolution: A History was the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, and remains popular today. Carlyle’s 1836 Sartor Resartus is a notable philosophical novel.
Quotes by Thomas Carlyle…
O thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create, know this for a truth: the thing thou seekest is already here, “here or nowhere,” couldst thou only see.
Virtue is, like health, the harmony of the whole man.
If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts.
There is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works. In idleness alone is there perpetual despair.
Our grand business is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
Indeed it is well said, “In every object there is inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing.”
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
It is the spiritual always which determines the material.
Thought is parent of the deed.
Loud clamour is always more or less insane.