Thomas Carlyle

“Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

“The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.”

“Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone.”

“A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.”

“The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself.”

“Old age is not a matter for sorrow. It is matter for thanks if we have left our work done behind us.”

“Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius.”

“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.”

“The three great elements of modern civilization, Gun powder, Printing, and the Protestant religion.”

“The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.”

“Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.”

“The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.”

“The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.”

“He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.”

“Work alone is noble.”

“No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.”

“In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.”

“History, a distillation of rumour.”

“There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.”

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

“Be not a slave of words.”