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Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

Thomas Carlyle

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Thomas Carlyle
Age: 85 †
Born: 1795
Born: December 4
Died: 1881
Died: February 5
Essayist
Historian
Linguist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Mathematician
Novelist
Philosopher
Teacher
Translator
Writer
Philosopher of Chelsea
Would
Motivation
Clings
Perfection
Axes
Wait
Spin
Waiting
Advancing
Action
Imperfection
Persons
Nowhere
Person
Entirely
Brushed
Ever
Till
Axis

More quotes by Thomas Carlyle

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So much of truth, only under an ancient obsolete vesture, but the spirit of it still true, do I find in the Paganism of old nations. Nature is still divine, the revelation of the workings of God the Hero is still worshipable: this, under poor cramped incipient forms, is what all Pagan religions have struggled, as they could, to set forth.
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Not on morality, but on cookery, let us build our stronghold: there brandishing our frying-pan, as censer, let us offer sweet incense to the Devil, and live at ease on the fat things he has provided for his elect!
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The choking, sweltering, deadly, and killing rule of no rule the consecration of cupidity and braying of folly, and dim stupidity and baseness, in most of the affairs of men. Slopshirts attainable three-halfpence cheaper by the ruin of living bodies and immortal souls.
Thomas Carlyle
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He who cannot withal keep his mind to himself cannot practice any considerable thing whatsoever.
Thomas Carlyle
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Good Christian people, here lies for you an inestimable loan take all heed thereof, in all carefulness, employ it: with high recompense, or else with heavy penalty, will it one day be required back.
Thomas Carlyle
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Philosophy dwells aloft in the Temple of Science, the divinity of its inmost shrine her dictates descend among men, but she herself descends not : whoso would behold her must climb with long and laborious effort, nay, still linger in the forecourt, till manifold trial have proved him worthy of admission into the interior solemnities.
Thomas Carlyle
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Terror itself, when once grown transcendental, becomes a kind of courage as frost sufficiently intense, according to the poet Milton, will burn.
Thomas Carlyle
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Thought is the parent of the deed.
Thomas Carlyle
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Once turn to practice, error and truth will no longer consort together.
Thomas Carlyle
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Clean undeniable right, clear undeniable might: either of these once ascertained puts an end to battle. All battle is a confused experiment to ascertain one and both of these.
Thomas Carlyle
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What this country needs is a man who knows God other than by heresay.
Thomas Carlyle
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Let him who would move and convince others, be first moved and convinced himself.
Thomas Carlyle
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Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better, Silence is deep as Eternity speech is shallow as Time.
Thomas Carlyle
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A fair day's wages for a fair day's work.
Thomas Carlyle
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Cherish what is dearest while you have it near you, and wait not till it is far away. Blind and deaf that we are oh, think, if thou yet love anybody living, wait not till death sweep down the paltry little dust clouds and dissonances of the moment, and all be made at last so mournfully clear and beautiful, when it is too late.
Thomas Carlyle
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Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.
Thomas Carlyle
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Let one who wants to move and convince others, first be convinced and moved themselves. If a person speaks with genuine earnestness the thoughts, the emotion and the actual condition of their own heart, others will listen because we all are knit together by the tie of sympathy.
Thomas Carlyle
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A man ought to inquire and find out what he really and truly has an appetite for what suits his constitution and that, doctors tell him, is the very thing he ought to have in general. And so with books.
Thomas Carlyle
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Hardened round us, encasing wholly every notion we form is a wrapping of traditions, hearsay's, and mere words.
Thomas Carlyle
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Let a man try faithfully, manfully to be right he will grow daily more and more right. It is at bottom the condition on which all men have to cultivate themselves.
Thomas Carlyle