Why should I know Thomas Carlyle?

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

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

“A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.”

“A person usually has two reasons for doing something, a good reason and the real reason.”

“Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man, but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.”

“Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.”

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

“Any the smallest alteration of my silent daily habits produces anarchy in me.”

“Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.”

“Endurance is patience concentrated.”

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

“Every noble work is at first impossible.”

“Fame is no sure test of merit.”

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

“Great men taken up in any way are profitable company. We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man without gaining something by him.”

“Have a purpose in life, and having it, throw into your work such strength of mind and muscle as God has given you.”

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

“If something be not done, something will do itself one day, and in a fashion that will please nobody.”

“If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all.”

“If you are ever in doubt as to whether or not you should kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt.”

“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.”

“It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the universe.”

“It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.”

“Let him who wants to move and convince others first be moved and convinced himself.”

“Literature is the thought of thinking souls.”

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

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

“Men do less than they ought, unless they do all they can.”

“Music is well said to be the speech of angels.”

“My books are friends that never fail me.”

“Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom.”

“No pressure, no diamonds.”

“Of all the paths a man could strike into, there is, at any given moment, a best path... A thing which, here and now, it were of all things wisest for him to do... To find this path, and walk in it, is the one thing needful for him.”

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

“Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world.”

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

“Silence is more eloquent than words.”

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

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

“The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity.”

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

“The crash of the whole solar and stellar systems could only kill you once.”

“The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.”

“The history of the world is but a biography of great men.”

“The instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.”

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

“The true university of these days is a collection of books.”

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

“The worst waste, that of time.”

“Thirty million, mostly fools.”

“To men in their sleep there is nothing granted in this world.”

“War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against one other.”

“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.”

“When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.”

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

“Wonder is the basis of worship.”

“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.”