Skip to content

The older I grow — and I now stand upon the brink of eternity — the more comes back to me that sentence in the Catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes, "What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

— Thomas Carlyle

Another quote →

Topics

Men

More quotes by Thomas Carlyle

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

Notebooks (1830)

No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.

Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840)

The great law of culture is: Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)

A well-written Life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.

Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)

History is the essence of innumerable biographies.

Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)

All Thomas Carlyle quotes →

You may also like

Ever since I arrived to a state of manhood, I have felt a sincere passion for liberty.

Ethan Allen

Men may rule the world, but women rule the men who rule the world.

Chinweizu Ibekwe Anatomy of Female Power (1990)

This is the porcelain clay of humankind.

John Dryden Don Sebastian (1690)

Conservatives have a problem with women. For that matter, all men do.

Ann Coulter The Cornell Review (1984)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Carlyle (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.