Inspirational Quotes by Thomas Carlyle

“For only to the extent that we empathize do we have the right to speak about a matter.”

“Da allora il sole, la luna e le stelle possono continuare tranquillamente il loro corso, io non so se sia giorno o notte, e tutto il mondo svanisce intorno a me.”

“No: ill-humour arises from an inward consciousness of our own want of merit, from a discontent which ever accompanies that envy which foolish vanity engenders.”

“Ağaçların sararıp dökülen yaprakları gibi, benim de yaşantım sararıp dökülüyor.”

“¿Es que tenía que ser así, que lo que hace la felicidad del hombre sea también la fuente de su desdicha?”

“¡Ay de mí! Este vacío, este horrible vacío que siente mi alma... Muchas veces me digo: “Si pudiera un momento, uno solo estrecharla contra mi corazón, todo este vacío se llenaría.”

“In the same way, the most restless of travellers ends up pining for his homeland once again, and discovers in his cottage, in the arms of his wife and amidst his children, and in the labours that are necessary to support them, that joy he sought in vain in the wide world.”

“Que la vida del hombre es solamente un sueño ya se le había ocurrido a bastantes, y también a mi me acompaña por todas partes ese sentimiento. Cuando contemplo la limitación a que se hallan reducidas las fuerzas activas e inquisitivas del hombre; cuando veo que toda actividad tiende a la satisfacción de las necesidades, que a su vez no tienen más objeto que la de prolongar nuestra pobre existencia, y que toda tranquilidad sobre ciertos de la investigación no es más que una resignación fundada en los sueños, como cuando se pintan los muros donde estamos encarcelados con figuras multicolores y perspectivas luminosas.”

“One life; a little gleam of Time between two Eternities; no second chance to us for evermore!”

“Carlyle thought little of these Essays. "Wretched lives" is his best word for them when he is bilious and the world is all gloom; but when in another place he confesses that he was seldom happier than when writing them, we may take his condemnation as he did his bile, "with a drop of oil and a grain of salt.”

“From youth, I have been accustomed to direct the eyes of my spirit inwards rather than outwards; and hence it is very natural, that, to a certain extent, I should be acquainted with man, while of men I have not the smallest knowledge.”

“Men are so inclined to content themselves with what is commonest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impressions of the beautiful and perfect,—that every one should study, by all methods, to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things. For no man can bear to be entirely deprived of such enjoyments: it is only because they are not used to taste of what is excellent that the generality of people take delight in silly and insipid things, provided they be new. For this reason," he would add, "one ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”

“It is much easier to die than to bear a life of misery with fortitude.”

“The world is so waste and empty, when we figure only towns and hills and rivers in it; but to know of some one here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence,—this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden.”

“Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blüh'n, Im dunkeln Laub die Goldorangen glüh'n, Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht, Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht, Dahin! Dahin Möcht' ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, zieh'n. Kennst du das Haus? Auf Säulen ruht sein Dach, Es glänzt der Saal, es schimmert das Gemach, Und Marmorbilder stehn und seh'n mich an: Was hat man dir, du armes Kind, getan? Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! Dahin Möcht ich mit dir, o mein Beschützer, zieh'n. Kennst du den Berg und seinen Wolkensteg? Das Maultier sucht im Nebel seinen Weg; In Höhlen wohnt der Drachen alte Brut; Es stürzt der Fels und über ihn die Flut. Kennst du ihn wohl? Dahin! Dahin Geht unser Weg! o Vater, laß uns zieh'n!”

“Schon ist alle Nähe fern”

“We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it. Every rational creature has all nature for his dowry and estate. It is his, if he will. He may divest himself of it; he may creep into a corner, and abdicate his kingdom, as most men do, but he is entitled to the world by his constitution.”

“Montaigne says, “Books are a languid pleasure,” but I find certain books vital and spermatic, not leaving the reader what he was; he shuts the book a richer man. I would never willingly read any other than such.”

“Whoever you are: in the evening step out of your room, where you know everything;”

“The world—this shadow of the soul, or other me, lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make me acquainted with myself. I launch eagerly into this resounding tumult. I grasp the hands of those next me, and take my place in the ring to suffer and to work, taught by an instinct that so shall the dumb abyss[43] be vocal with speech. I pierce its order; I dissipate its fear;[44] I dispose of it within the circuit of my expanding life. So much only of life as I know by experience, so much of the wilderness have I vanquished and planted, or so far have I extended my being, my dominion. I do not see how any man can afford, for the sake of his nerves and his nap, to spare any action in which he can partake. It is pearls and rubies to his discourse. Drudgery, calamity, exasperation, want, are instructors in eloquence and wisdom. The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action passed by, as a loss of power.”