Thomas Carlyle

“In books lies the soul of the whole past time.”

“To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on him...”

“Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.”

“The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was.”

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

“History, a distillation of rumour.”

“Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.”

“History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion.”

“Silence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time.”

“Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.”

“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 difference between Socrates and Jesus? The great conscious and the immeasurably great unconscious.”

“If what you have done is unjust, you have not succeeded.”

“Worship is transcendent wonder.”

“Happy the people whose annals are vacant.”

“A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.”

“Conviction never so excellent, is worthless until it coverts itself into conduct.”