Thomas Carlyle

The past is all holy to us; the dead are all holy; even they that were wicked when alive.

Thomas Carlyle

The person who cannot laugh is not only ready for treason, and deceptions, their whole life is already a treason and deception.

Thomas Carlyle

The person who cannot wonder is but a pair of spectacles behind which there is no eye.

Thomas Carlyle

The philosopher is he to whom the highest has descended, and the lowest has mounted up; who is the equal and kindly brother of all.

Thomas Carlyle

The Poet who could merely sit on a chair, and compose stanzas, would never make a stanza worth much. He could not sing the Heroic warrior, unless he himself were at least a Heroic warrior too.

Thomas Carlyle

The purpose of man is in action not thought.

Thomas Carlyle

The soul gives unity to what it looks at with love.

Thomas Carlyle

The spiritual is the parent of the practical.

Thomas Carlyle

The suffering man ought really to consume his own smoke; there is no good in emitting smoke till you have made it into fire.

Thomas Carlyle

The three great elements of modern civilization, gunpowder, printing, and the Protestant religion.

Thomas Carlyle