Thomas Carlyle Quotes

The deadliest sin were the consciousness of no sin.

Speech is silvern, silence is golden.

As the Swiss inscription says: Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden, – “Speech is silver, Silence is golden;” or, as I might rather express it, Speech is of Time, Silence is of Eternity.

The great silent men! Looking around 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. The noble, silent men, scattered here and there, each in his department; silently thinking, silently working; whom no Morning Newspaper makes mention of! They […]

Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves.

Silence is more eloquent than words.

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.

Vain hope to make men happy by politics!

The words of Milton are true in all things, and were never truer than in this: ‘He who would write heroic poems must make his whole life a heroic poem.’

Giving a name, indeed, is a poetic art; all poetry, if we go to that with it, is but a giving of names.