Thomas Carlyle Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old Thomas Carlyle quotes, Thomas Carlyle sayings, and Thomas Carlyle proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

It is not honest inquiry that makes anarchy; but it is error, insincerity, half belief and untruth that make it. Thomas Carlyle
If there be no enemy there’s no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown. Thomas Carlyle
The lightning spark of thought generated in the solitary mind awakens its likeness in another mind. Thomas Carlyle
All work, even cotton spinning, is noble; work is alone noble... A life of ease is not for any man, nor for any god. Thomas Carlyle
There is precious instruction to be got by finding we were wrong. Thomas Carlyle
A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun. Thomas Carlyle
Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight. Thomas Carlyle
A fair day's wages for a fair day's work. Thomas Carlyle
The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then. Thomas Carlyle
The true epic of our times is not "Arm's and the Man," but "Tools and the Man"--an infinitely wider kind of epic. Thomas Carlyle
Worship is transcendent wonder. Thomas Carlyle
The true university of these days is a collection of books. Thomas Carlyle
A crowd has the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. Thomas Carlyle
A noble book! all men's book! Thomas Carlyle
Every noble work is at first impossible. Thomas Carlyle
Every noble crown is, and on Earth will forever be, a crown of thorns. Thomas Carlyle
Clever men are good, but they are not the best. Thomas Carlyle
Biography is the only true history. Thomas Carlyle
Biography is the most universally pleasant and profitable of all reading. Thomas Carlyle
No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men. Thomas Carlyle
A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus. Thomas Carlyle
Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the delight of life, which they are thenceforth to rule. Thomas Carlyle
One is hardly sensible of fatigue while he marches to music. Thomas Carlyle
The fine arts once divorcing themselves from truth are quite certain to fall mad, if they do not die. Thomas Carlyle
Democracy will prevail when men believe the vote of Judas as good as that of Jesus Christ. Thomas Carlyle
No country can find eternal peace and comfort where the vote of Judas Iscariot is as good as the vote of the Saviour of mankind. Thomas Carlyle
Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world. Thomas Carlyle
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green. Thomas Carlyle
Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance-the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it; better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen. Thomas Carlyle
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green. Thomas Carlyle