The voices / 1210 fragments

Thomas Carlyle

1795 AD — 1881 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

Author and source reference ↗

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Historical source references

Richter
State of German Literature
Goethe
Burns
Voltaire
Sir Walter Scott
Varnhagen Von Ense's Memoirs
Life of Frederick the Great
Sartor Resartus
Heroes and Hero-Worship
Action · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Duty · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Experience · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Genius · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Greatness · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Hope · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Infidelity · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Joy · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Labor · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Laughter · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Man · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Money · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Occupation · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Perseverance · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Piety · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Reform · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Rest · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Superstition · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Words · anthology attribution: Carlyle
Work · anthology attribution: Carlyle

Archive entries

01Undated

It is not to taste sweet things, but to do noble and true things, and vindicate himself under God's heaven as a God-made man, that the poorest son of Adam dimly longs. Show him the way of doing that, the dullest day-drudge kindles into a hero.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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02Undated

Let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this precept well to heart: "Do the duty which lies nearest to thee," which thou knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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03Undated

Experience does take dreadfully high school-wages, but he teaches like no other.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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04Undated

Genius is an immense capacity for taking trouble.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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05Undated

No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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06Undated

"Hast thou hope?" they asked of John Knox, when he lay a-dying. He spoke nothing, but raised his finger and pointed upward, and so died.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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07Undated

There is but one thing without honor, smitten with eternal barrenness, inability to do or to be,—insincerity, unbelief.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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08Undated

Without kindness, there can be no true joy.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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09Undated

Labor, wide as the earth, has its summit in heaven.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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10Undated

A laugh to be joyous must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness there can be no true joy.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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11Undated

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one rascal less in the world.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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12Undated

The deepest depth of vulgarism is that of setting up money as the ark of the covenant.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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13Undated

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life purpose. Labor is life.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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14Undated

The block of granite, which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, becomes a stepping stone in the pathway of the strong.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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15Undated

Piety does not mean that a man should make a sour face about things, and refuse to enjoy in moderation what his Maker has given.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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16Undated

Reform, like charity, must begin at home.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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17Undated

Rest is a fine medicine. Let your stomachs rest, ye dyspeptics; let your brain rest, you wearied and worried men of business; let your limbs rest, ye children of toil!

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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18Undated

Superstition! that horrid incubus which dwelt in darkness, shunning the light, with all its racks, and poison chalices, and foul sleeping draughts, is passing away without return. Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky; but the stars are there and will reappear.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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19Undated

If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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20Undated

The modern majesty consists in work. What a man can do is his greatest ornament, and he always consults his dignity by doing it.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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21Undated

A fact is a great thing: a sentence printed, if not by God, then at least by the Devil.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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22Undated

"A fair day's wages for a fair day's work," is as just a demand as governed men ever made of governing; yet in what corner of this planet was that ever realised?

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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23Undated

A lie should be trampled on and extinguished wherever found.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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24Undated

All balloons give up their gas in the pressure of things, and collapse in a sufficiently wretched manner erelong.

Thomas Carlyle / quote

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Thomas Carlyle

Archive entries

Read further

Meditations

Tao Te Ching

The Prophet