Thomas Carlyle Quotes on Life
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher and one of the most prominent Victorian moral voices. This page collects quotes attributed to Thomas Carlyle on the topic of life, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“Work alone is noble.”
Bk. III, ch. 4. -
Attributed to Thomas Carlyle:
“No great man lives in vain.”
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Attributed to Thomas Carlyle:
“The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.”
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“My Own Four Walls” (c. 1825) Froude, James Anthony (1882). Thomas Carlyle: A history of the first forty years of his life, 1795-1835 . p. 189. OCLC 603024 .”
Not all his men may sever this, It yields to friends ', not monarchs ', calls; My whinstone house my castle is — I have my own four walls. -
“The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something. The strongest, by dispensing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. The drop, by continually falling, bores its passage through the hardest rock. The hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind.”
The life of Friedrich Schiller : Comprehending an examination of his works (1825). -
“The life of Friedrich Schiller : Comprehending an examination of his works (1825).”
The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something. The strongest, by dispensing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. The drop, by continually falling, bores its passage through the hardest rock. The hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind. -
“It is now almost my sole rule of life to clear myself of cants and formulas, as of poisonous Nessus shirts .”
Letter to His Wife (1835).