Quote

No good book or good thing of any kind shows it best face at first. No the most common quality of in a true work of art that has excellence and depth, is that at first sight it produces a certain disappointment.

Thomas Carlyle

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Firsts
Face
Book
Common
Produces
First
Faces
Disappointment
Thing
Art
Excellence
Work
Shows
Depth
Kind
True
Sight
Good
Certain
Produce
Best
Quality

More quotes by Thomas Carlyle

Image
Success in life, in anything, depends upon the number of persons that one can make himself agreeable to.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Doubt of any kind cannot be resolved except by action.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Weak eyes are fondest of glittering objects.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
What unknown seas of feeling lie in man, and will from time to time break through!
Thomas Carlyle
Image
No violent extreme endures.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
The Persians are called the French of the East we will call the Arabs Oriental Italians. A gifted noble people a people of wildstrong feelings, and of iron restraint over these: the characteristic of noblemindedness, of genius.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
In a symbol there is concealment and yet revelation: here therefore, by Silence and by Speech acting together, comes a double significance.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Wonderful Force of Public Opinion! We must act and walk in all points as it prescribes follow the traffic it bids us, realize the sum of money, the degree of influence it expects of us, or we shall be lightly esteemed certain mouthfuls of articulate wind will be blown at us, and this what mortal courage can front?
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Have a purpose in life, and having it, throw into your work such strength of mind and muscle as God has given you.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
How great a Possibility, how small a realized Result.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Love is the only game that is not called on account of darkness.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Thought, true labor of any kind, highest virtue itself, is it not the daughter of Pain?
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Teach a parrot the terms 'supply and demand' and you've got an economist.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
The insignificant, the empty, is usually the loud and after the manner of a drum, is louder even because of its emptiness.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Friendship, in the old heroic sense of that term, no longer exists. It is in reality no longer expected or recognized as a virtue among men.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Nature admits no lie.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
History is the distillation of rumour.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
Piety does not mean that a man should make a sour face about things, and refuse to enjoy in moderation what his Maker has given.
Thomas Carlyle
Image
The great silent man! Looking round on the noisy inanity of the world,--words with little meaning, actions with little worth,--one loves to reflect on the great Empire of Silence.
Thomas Carlyle