Thomas Carlyle on Character
1795–1881 Scotland
← All quotes by Thomas Carlyle
7 quotes
We are firm believers in the maxim that for all right judgment of any man or thing it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.
Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)
In every man's writings, the character of the writer must lie recorded.
Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)
Clever men are good, but they are not the best.
Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)
Our grand business is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
It can be said of him, When he departed he took a Man's life with him. No sounder piece of British manhood was put together in that eighteenth century of Time.
It is in general more profitable to reckon up our defects than to boast of our attainments.
Let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this precept well to heart: "Do the duty which lieth nearest to thee," which thou knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.