Quotes from Thomas Carlyle

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it.

I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.

All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been; it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see further.

A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.

My books are friends that never fail me." ( Letter to his mother, Margaret A. Carlyle ; 17 March 1817)

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

Tell a man he is brave, and you help him to become so.

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

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

The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.

Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world.

A good book is the purest essence of a human soul.

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

Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite.

The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only.

A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are

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

A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.

Of all your troubles, great and small, the greatest are the ones that don't happen at all.

The word of Mohammad is a voice direct from nature's own heart - all else is wind in comparison.

The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.