Quotes from Thomas Carlyle

Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such; it is an accident, not a property of man.

For man is not the creature and product of Mechanism; but, in a far truer sense, its creator and producer.

Be a pattern to others, and then all will go well; for as a whole city is affected by the licentious passions and vices of great men, so it is likewise reformed by their moderation.

No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, can ever compel the soul of a person to believe or to disbelieve.

A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.

Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance.

Obedience is our universal duty and destiny; wherein whoso will not bend must break; too early and too thoroughly we cannot be trained to know that "would," in this world of ours, is a mere zero to "should," and for most part as the smallest of fractions even to "shall."

Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.

Heroism is the divine relation which, in all times, unites a great man to other men.

The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark enough.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

If you don't 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.

There are but two ways of paying debt: Increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying out.

Can there be a more horrible object in existence than an eloquent man not speaking the truth?

Certainly the Art of Writing is the most miraculous of all things man has devised.

He that has a secret should not only hide it, but hide that he has it to hide.

All work is as seed sown; it grows and spreads, and sows itself anew.

Nature admits no lie.

Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

In every man's writings, the character of the writer must lie recorded.

He who would write heroic poems should make his whole life a heroic poem.

The great law of culture is: Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

A word spoken in season, at the right moment, is the mother of ages.

Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-canceling business; and it gives in the long run a net result of zero.