Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlylewas a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime with certain acclaim in the Victorian era. One of those conferences resulted in his famous work On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History where he explains that the key role in history lies in the actions of the "Great Man", claiming that "History is nothing but the biography of the...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth4 December 1795
Necessity dispenseth with decorum.
Narrative is linear, but action has breadth and depth as well as height and is solid.
Love is not altogether a delirium, yet it has many points in common therewith.
Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding.
The outer passes away; the innermost is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
What you see, but can't see over is as good as infinite.
Good breeding differs, if at all, from high breeding only as it gracefully remembers the rights of others, rather than gracefully insists on its own rights.
Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of the two everlasting empires, necessity and free will.
True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart. It is not contempt; its essence is love. It issues not in laughter, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper.
Youth is to all the glad season of life; but often only by what it hopes, not by what it attains, or what it escapes.
When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.
The past is all holy to us; the dead are all holy; even they that were wicked when alive.
Contented saturnine human figures, a dozen or so of them, sitting around a large long table...Perfect equality is to be the rule; no rising or notice taken when anybody enters or leaves. Let the entering man take his place and pipe, without obligatory remarks; if he cannot smoke...let him at least affect to do so, and not ruffle the established stream of things.
The coldest word was once a glowing new metaphor.