Quotes from Thomas Carlyle

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

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

When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with it fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.

In every phenomenon the beginning remains always the most notable moment.

No person is important enough to make me angry.

Look to be treated by others as you have treated others.

The wise man is but a clever infant, spelling letters from a hieroglyphical prophetic book, the lexicon of which lies in eternity.

The Christian must be consumed by the conviction of the infinite beauty of holiness and the infinite damnability of sin.

Be not a slave of words.

All great peoples are conservative.

No magic Rune is stranger than a Book. All that Mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lyingas in magic preservation in the pages of Books. They are the chosen possession of men.

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

The eye sees what it brings the power to see.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

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.

An everlasting lodestar, that beams the brighter in the heavens the darker here on earth grows the night.

A false man found a religion? Why, a false man cannot build a brick house!

His religion at best is an anxious wish - like that of Rebelais a great Perhaps.

Great souls are always loyally submissive, reverent to what is over them: only small mean souls are otherwise.

What is all Knowledge too but recorded Experience, and a product of History; of which, therefore, Reasoning and Belief, no less than Action and Passion, are essential materials?

In every object there is inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing.

The authentic insight and experience of any human soul, were it but insight and experience in hewing of wood and drawing of water, is real knowledge, a real possession and acquirement.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

Leaders: Captains of industry.