Background Image
...
At The Bottom There Is No Perfect History; There Is None Such Conceivable. All Past Centuries Have Rotted Down, And Gone Confusedly Dumb And Quiet.
-Thomas Carlyle
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

At The Bottom There

Thomas Carlyle
...
At The Bottom There Is No Perfect History; There Is None Such Conceivable. All Past Centuries Have Rotted Down, And Gone Confusedly Dumb And Quiet.

Understanding the Quote: "at the bottom there is no perfect history; there is none such..."

This quote by Thomas Carlyle reflects deeply on the theme of past. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Past, History, Perfect, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas Carlyle interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle is celebrated for insightful thoughts on past and history. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 95548
Topic
Past
History
Perfect
More From Thomas Carlyle
Not Brute Force But Only Persuasion And Faith Are The Kings Of This World.
Kings
World
Persuasion
It Is Great, And There Is No Other Greatness-to Make One Nook Of God's Creation More Fruitful, Better, More Worthy Of God; To Make Some Human Heart A Little Wiser, Manlier, Happier-more Blessed.
Blessed
Heart
Greatness
Just In The Ratio Knowledge Increases, Faith Decreases.
Ratios
Increase
Decrease
The Goal Of Yesterday Will Be Our Starting-point To-morrow.
Yesterday
Goal
Starting
Isolation Is The Sum Total Of Wretchedness To A Man.
Lonely
Loneliness
Men
Every Noble Crown Is, And On Earth Will Forever Be, A Crown Of Thorns.
Forever
Noble
Crowns
How Great A Possibility, How Small A Realized Result.
Possibility
Results
Man Is Emphatically A Proselytizing Creature.
Nature
Men
Humanity
No Violent Extreme Endures.
Violence
Violent
Endure
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.
Inspirational
Dance
World
History Is The New Poetry.
History
In The Huge Mass Of Evil As It Rolls And Swells, There Is Ever Some Good Working Toward Deliverance And Triumph.
Evil
Triumph
Deliverance
Trust Not The Heart Of That Man For Whom Old Clothes Are Not Venerable.
Heart
Men
Clothes
History Is The Distillation Of Rumour.
History
Rumours
Distillation
For, Strictly Considered, What Is All Knowledge Too But Recorded Experience, And A Product Of History; Of Which, Therefore, Reasoning And Belief, No Less Than Action And Passion, Are Essential Materials?
History
Products
Nakedness, Hunger, Distress Of All Kinds, Death Itself Have Been Cheerfully Suffered, When The Heart Was Right. It Is The Feeling Of Injustice That Is Insupportable To All Men.
Heart
Men
Feelings
Poetry, Therefore, We Will Call Musical Thought.
Poetry
Musical
A Collection Of Books Is The Best Of All Universities.
Book
Collections
University
Naps Are A Way Of Traveling Painlessly Through Time Into The Future.
Time
Naps
Way
The Nobleness Of Silence. The Highest Melody Dwells Only In Silence,--the Sphere Melody, The Melody Of Health.
Silence
Spheres
Melody
The Universe Is But One Vast Symbol Of God.
Diversity
Soul
Symbols
The Highest Being Reveals Himself In Man.
Men
Highest
To A Shower Of Gold Most Things Are Penetrable.
Money
Gold
Showers
Goethe's Devil Is A Cultivated Personage And Acquainted With The Modern Sciences; Sneers At Witchcraft And The Black Art Even While Employing Them, And Doubts Most Things, Nay, Half Disbelieves Even His Own Existence.
Art
Black
Doubt
Even In The Meanest Sorts Of Labor, The Whole Soul Of A Man Is Composed Into A Kind Of Real Harmony The Instant He Sets Himself To Work.
Real
Work
Men
Nothing That Was Worthy In The Past Departs; No Truth Or Goodness Realized By Man Ever Dies, Or Can Die.
Past
Men
Goodness
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.
Art
Disappointment
Book
The Outer Passes Away; The Innermost Is The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever.
Time
Yesterday
Forever
One Monster There Is In The World, The Idle Man.
Men
Monsters
World
Every Noble Work Is At First Impossible.
Positive
Stay Strong
Inspirational Life
Neither Had Watt Of The Steam Engine A Heroic Origin, Any Kindred With The Princes Of This World. The Princes Of This World Were Shooting Their Partridges... While This Man With Blackened Fingers, With Grim Brow, Was Searching Out, In His Workshop, The Fire-secret.
Men
Fire
Secret
The Lightning Spark Of Thought Generated In The Solitary Mind Awakens Its Likeness In Another Mind.
Innovation
Mind
Lightning
The Authentic Insight And Experience Of Any Human Soul, Were It But Insight And Experience In Hewing Of Wood And Drawing Of Water, Is Real Knowledge, A Real Possession And Acquirement.
Real
Drawing
Water
If You Will Believe Me, You Who Are Young, Yours Is The Golden Season Of Life. As You Have Heard It Called, So It Verily Is, The Seed-time Of Life; In Which, If You Do Not Sow, Or If You Sow Tares Instead Of Wheat, You Cannot Expect To Reap Well Afterwards, And You Will Arrive At Little. And In The Course Of Years When You Come To Look Back, If You Have Not Done What You Have Heard From Your Advisers,-and Among Many Counsellors There Is Wisdom,-you Will Bitterly Repent When It Is Too Late.
Believe
Years
Training
Men Seldom, Or Rather Never For A Length Of Time And Deliberately, Rebel Against Anything That Does Not Deserve Rebelling Against.
Men
Uprising
Rebel
Great Men Are The Commissioned Guides Of Mankind, Who Rule Their Fellows Because They Are Wiser.
Wise
Wisdom
Men
Beautiful It Is, And A Gleam From The Same Eternal Pole-star Visible Amid The Destinies Of Men, That All Talent, All Intellect, Is In The First Plane Moral. What A World Were This Otherwise!
Beautiful
Stars
Destiny
To Us Also, Through Every Star, Through Every Blade Of Grass, Is Not God Made Visible If We Will Open Our Minds And Our Eyes.
God
Stars
Eye
Today Is Not Yesterday: We Ourselves Change; How Can Our Works And Thoughts, If They Are Always To Be The Fittest, Continue Always The Same? Change, Indeed Is Painful; Yet Ever Needful; And If Memory Have Its Force And Worth, So Also Has Hope.
Change
Hope
Pain
Speech Is Great, But Silence Is Greater.
Silence
Speech
Silence Is
The Secret Of Business Is To Know Something That Nobody Else Knows. The Greatest Of Faults, I Should Say Is To Be Conscious Of None.
Secret
Faults
Conscious
A Background Of Wrath, Which Can Be Stirred Up To The Murderous Infernal Pitch, Does Lie In Every Man.
Lying
Anger
Men
Consider In Fact, A Body Of Six Hundred And Fifty-eight Miscellaneous Persons, Set To Consult About "business," With Twenty-seven Millions, Mostly Fools, Assiduously Listening To Them, And Checking And Criticising Them. Was There Ever, Since The World Began, Will There Ever Be Till The World End, Any "business" Accomplished In These Circumstances?
Eight
Government
Listening
Thought, True Labor Of Any Kind, Highest Virtue Itself, Is It Not The Daughter Of Pain?
Daughter
Pain
Creative
Love Not Pleasure; Love God.
Pleasure Love
God Love
Pleasure
Men Worship The Shows Of Great Men; The Most Disbelieve That There Is Any Reality Of Great Men To Worship.
Reality
Greatness
Men
What Are Your Axioms, And Categories, And Systems, And Aphorisms? Words, Words.... Be Not The Slave Of Words.
Language
Slave
Aphorism
See Deep Enough, And You See Musically.
Enough
Music Healing
Music And Healing
No Ghost Was Every Seen By Two Pair Of Eyes.
Eye
Two
Pairs
Innumerable Are The Illusions And Legerdemain-tricks Of Custom: But Of All Of These, Perhaps The Cleverest Is Her Knack Of Persuading Us That The Miraculous, By Simple Repetition, Ceases To Be Miraculous.
Simple
Knack
Illusion
Not One False Man But Doth Uncountable Evil.
Men
Evil
Violence Does Even Justice Unjustly.
Justice
Doe
Violence
Except By Name, Jean Paul Friedrich Richter Is Little Known Out Of Germany. The Only Thing Connected With Him, We Think, That Has Reached This Country Is His Saying,-imported By Madame De Staël, And Thankfully Pocketed By Most Newspaper Critics,-"providence Has Given To The French The Empire Of The Land; To The English That Of The Sea; To The Germans That Of-the Air!" Richter: German Humorist & Prose Writer.
Country
Thinking
Air
No Sooner Does A Great Man Depart, And Leave His Character As Public Property, Than A Crowd Of Little Men Rushes Towards It. There They Are Gathered Together, Blinking Up To It With Such Vision As They Have, Scanning It From Afar, Hovering Round It This Way And That, Each Cunningly Endeavoring, By All Arts, To Catch Some Reflex Of It In The Little Mirror Of Himself.
Art
Character
Men
Virtue Is Like Health: The Harmony Of The Whole Man.
Men
Healthy
Virtue
If A Book Comes From The Heart, It Will Contrive To Reach Other Hearts; All Art And Author-craft Are Of Small Amount To That.
Art
Book
Reading
All Men, If They Work Not As In The Great Taskmaster's Eye, Will Work Wrong, And Work Unhappily For Themselves And For You.
Eye
Responsibility
Men
Democracy Will Itself Accomplish The Salutary Universal Change From Delusive To Real, And Make A New Blessed World Of Us By And By.
Real
Blessed
Democracy
Music Is Well Said To Be The Speech Of Angels.
Inspirational
Music
Angel
It Is Part Of My Creed That The Only Poetry Is History, Could We Tell It Right.
History
Creeds
Poetry Is
Everywhere In Life, The True Question Is Not What We Gain, But What We Do.
Gains
Action
The Courage We Desire And Prize Is Not The Courage To Die Decently, But To Live Manfully.
Inspirational
Courage
Men
One Seems To Believe Almost All That They Believe; And When They Stop Short And Call It A Religion, And You Pass On, And Call It Only A Reminiscence Of One, Should You Not Part With The Kiss Of Peace?
Believe
Kissing
Atheism
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.
Men
Silence
World
There Is In Man A Higher Than Love Of Happiness; He Can Do Without Happiness, And Instead Thereof Find Blessedness.
Men
Higher
Blessedness
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?
Wind
Degrees
Public Opinion
There Is A Perennial Nobleness, And Even Sacredness, In Work. Were He Never So Benighted, Forgetful Of His High Calling, There Is Always Hope In A Man That Actually And Earnestly Works: In Idleness Alone There Is Perpetual Despair.
Work
Men
Despair
Skepticism . . . Is Not Intellectual Only It Is Moral Also, A Chronic Atrophy And Disease Of The Whole Soul.
Wise
Soul
Intellectual
All Work, Even Cotton-spinning, Is Noble; Work Is Alone Noble.
Life
Positive
Noble
Not Our Logical, Mensurative Faculty, But Our Imaginative One Is King Over Us; I Might Say, Priest And Prophet To Lead Us Heavenward; Or Magician And Wizard To Lead Us Hellward.
Kings
War
Heaven
When The Oak Is Felled The Whole Forest Echoes With It Fall, But A Hundred Acorns Are Sown In Silence By An Unnoticed Breeze.
Inspirational
Fall
Echoes
These Arabs, The Man Mahomet, And That One Century, - Is It Not As If A Spark Had Fallen, One Spark, On A World Of What Proves Explosive Powder, Blazes Heaven-high From Delhi To Granada! I Said, The Great Man Was Always As Lightning Out Of Heaven; The Rest Of Men Waited For Him Like Fuel, And Then They Too Would Flame.
Islamic
Men
Flames
No Sadder Proof Can Be Given By A Man Of His Own Littleness Than Disbelief In Great Men.
Sadness
Men
Misery
We Arc The Miracle Of Miracles, The Great Inscrutable Mystery Of God.
Miracle
Mystery
Arcs
This London City, With All Of Its Houses, Palaces, Steam-engines, Cathedrals, And Huge Immeasurable Traffic An Tumult, What Is It But A Thought, But Millions Of Thoughts Made Into One-a Huge Immeasurable Spirit Of A Thought, Embodied In Brick, In Iron, Smoke, Dust, Palaces, Parliaments, Hackney Coaches, Katherine Docks, And The Rest Of It! Not A Brick Was Made But Some Man Had To Think Of The Making Of That Brick.
Men
Thinking
Iron
The Condition Of The Most Passionate Enthusiast Is To Be Preferred Over The Individual Who, Because Of The Fear Of Making A Mistake, Won't In The End Affirm Or Deny Anything
Fear
Mistake
Passionate
If You Are Ever In Doubt As To Whether To Kiss A Pretty Girl, Always Give Her The Benefit Of The Doubt.
Girl
Sarcastic
Humorous
A Battle Is A Terrible Conjugation Of The Verb To Kill: I Kill, Thou Killest, He Kills, We Kill, They Kill, All Kill.
War
Battle
Verbs
History Is A Mighty Dramos, Enacted Upon The Theatre Of Times, With Suns For Lamps And Eternity For A Background.
History
Historical
Theatre
The Word Of Mohammad Is A Voice Direct From Nature's Own Heart - All Else Is Wind In Comparison.
Heart
Wind
Voice
Well Might The Ancients Make Silence A God; For It Is The Element Of All Godhood, Infinitude, Or Transcendental Greatness,--at Once The Source And The Ocean Wherein All Such Begins And Ends.
Ocean
Greatness
Silence
No Country Can Find Eternal Peace And Comfort Where The Vote Of Judas Iscariot Is As Good As The Vote Of The Saviour Of Mankind.
Country
Comfort
Vote
A Person Who Is Gifted Sees The Essential Point And Leaves The Rest As Surplus.
Focus And Concentration
Data
Essentials
What Unknown Seas Of Feeling Lie In Man, And Will From Time To Time Break Through!
Lying
Men
Sea
Teach A Parrot The Terms 'supply And Demand' And You've Got An Economist.
Demand
Parrots
Teach
Every Man Has A Coward And Hero In His Soul.
Hero
Men
Soul
A Person With A Clear Purpose Will Make Progress, Even On The Roughest Road. A Person With No Purpose Will Make No Progress, Even On The Smoothest Road.
Motivational
Progress
Purpose
Whoso Has Sixpence Is Sovereign (to The Length Of Sixpence) Over All Men; Commands Cooks To Feed Him, Philosophers To Teach Him, Kings To Mount Guard Over Him,to The Length Of Sixpence.
Kings
Men
Sovereign
Nay, In Every Epoch Of The World, The Great Event, Parent Of All Others, Is It Not The Arrival Of A Thinker In The World?
Parent
Events
World
A Man's Felicity Consists Not In The Outward And Visible Blessing Of Fortune, But In The Inward And Unseen Perfections And Riches Of The Mind.
Inspirational
Men
Blessing
Roguery Is Thought By Some To Be Cunning And Laughable: It Is Neither; It Is Devilish.
Rogues
Cunning
Devilish
Unity, Agreement, Is Always Silent Or Soft-voiced; It Is Only Discord That Loudly Proclaims Itself.
Agreement
Unity
Silent
O Poor Mortals, How Ye Make This Earth Bitter For Each Other.
Earth
Bitter
Poor
The True Sovereign Of The World, Who Moulds The World Like Soft Wax, According To His Pleasure, Is He Who Lovingly Sees Into The World.
World
Sovereign
Pleasure
Narrative Is Linear, But Action Has Breadth And Depth As Well As Height And Is Solid.
Depth
Narrative
Height
Egotism Is The Source And Summary Of All Faults And Miseries.
Ego
Faults
Misery
What Is Philosophy But A Continual Battle Against Custom?
Philosophy
Battle
Customs
The English Are A Dumb People. They Can Do Great Acts, But Not Describe Them.
People
Dumb
Dumb People
A Mind That Has Seen, And Suffered, And Done, Speaks To Us Of What It Has Tried And Conquered.
Mind
Done
Speak
Might And Right Do Differ Frightfully From Hour To Hour, But Then Centuries To Try It In, They Are Found To Be Identical.
Trying
Vices
Might
We Observe With Confidence That The Truly Strong Mind, View It As Intellect Or Morality, Or Under Any Other Aspect, Is Nowise The Mind Acquainted With Its Strength; That Here The Sign Of Health Is Unconsciousness.
Strong
Greatness
Views
It Is A Fact Which Escapes No One, That, Generally Speaking, Whoso Is Acquainted With His Worth Has But A Little Stock To Cultivate Acquaintance With.
Littles
Facts
Conceit
In A Different Time, In A Different Place, It Is Always Some Other Side Of Our Common Human Nature That Has Been Developing Itself. The Actual Truth Is The Sum Of All These.
Different
Sides
Common
The Infinite, Absolute Character Of Virtue Has Passed Into A Finite, Conditional One; It Is No Longer A Worship Of The Beautiful And Good; But A Calculation Of The Profitable.
Beautiful
Character
Worship
The Healthy Know Not Of Their Health, But Only The Sick: This Is The Physician's Aphorism, And Applicable In A Far Wider Sense Than He Gives It.
Health
Giving
Sick
There Needs Not A Great Soul To Make A Hero; There Needs A God-created Soul Which Will Be True To Its Origin; That Will Be A Great Soul!
Hero
Soul
Needs
Without Oblivion, There Is No Remembrance Possible. When Both Oblivion And Memory Are Wise, When The General Soul Of Man Is Clear, Melodious, True, There May Come A Modern Iliad As Memorial Of The Past.
Wise
Memories
Past
A Heavenly Awe Overshadowed And Encompassed, As It Still Ought, And Must, All Earthly Business Whatsoever.
Awe
Heavenly
Stills
A False Man Found A Religion? Why, A False Man Cannot Build A Brick House!
Men
House
Bricks
Obedience Is Our Universal Duty And Destiny; Wherein Whoso Will Not Bend Must Break; Too Early And Too Thoroughly We Cannot Be Trained To Know That "would," In This World Of Ours, Is A Mere Zero To "should," And For Most Part As The Smallest Of Fractions Even To "shall.
Zero
Destiny
World
Statistics Is A Science Which Ought To Be Honourable, The Basis Of Many Most Important Sciences; But It Is Not To Be Carried On By Steam, This Science, Any More Than Others Are; A Wise Head Is Requisite For Carrying It On.
Wise
Science
Important
There Are Remedies For All Things But Death.
Death
Remedy
All Things
Only Perhaps In The United States, Which Alone Of Countries Can Do Without Governing,every Man Being At Least Able To Live, And Move Off Into The Wilderness, Let Congress Jargon As It Will,can Such A Form Of So-called Government Continue For Any Length Of Time To Torment Men With The Semblance, When The Indispensable Substance Is Not There.
Country
Moving
Men
Our Works Are The Mirror Wherein The Spirit First Sees Its Natural Lineaments. Hence, Too, The Folly Of That Impossible Precept, Know Theyself; Till It Be Translated Into This Partially Possible One, Know What Thou Canst Work At.
Life
Success
Work
The Meaning Of Song Goes Deep. Who In Logical Words Can Explain The Effect Music Has On Us? A Kind Of Inarticulate, Unfathomable Speech, Which Leads Us To The Edge Of The Infinite, And Lets Us For A Moment Gaze Into That!
Music
Song
Speech
There Is But One Thing Without Honor, Smitten With Eternal Barrenness, Inability To Do Or To Be,-insincerity, Unbelief.
Infidelity
Honor
Inability
No Good Book, Or Good Thing Of Any Sort, Shows Its Best Face At First.
Book
Faces
Firsts
Speech Is Of Time, Silence Is Of Eternity.
Time
Silence
Speech
Woe To Him, . . . Who Has No Court Of Appeal Against The World's Judgment.
World
Woe
Judgment
A Fair Day's Wages For A Fair Day's Work.
Wages
Fairs
If An Eloquent Speaker Speak Not The Truth, Is There A More Horrid Kind Of Object In Creation?
Kind
Speak
Truth Is
Let Me Have My Own Way In Exactly Everything And A Sunnier And Pleasanter Creature Does Not Exist.
Doe
Way
Let Me
Time Has Only A Relative Existence.
Time
Existence
Relative
Of All The Things Which Man Can Do Or Make Here Below, By Far The Most Momentous, Wonderful, And Worthy Are The Things We Call Books.
Book
Men
Wonderful
Is Not Light Grander Than Fire?
Fire
Light
Blessed Is He Who Has Found His Work; Let Him Ask No Other Blessedness.
Motivational
Happiness
Business
God Almighty Never Created A Man Half As Wise As He Looks.
Wise
Men
Looks
Worship Is Transcendent Wonder.
Worship
Wonder
Transcendent
A Greater Number Of God's Creatures Believe In Mahomet's Word At This Hour Than In Any Other Word Whatever. Are We To Suppose That It Was A Miserable Piece Of Spiritual Legerdemain, This Which So Many Creatures Of The Almighty Have Lived By And Died By?
Spiritual
Believe
Numbers
A Poor Creature Who Has Said Or Done Nothing Worth A Serious Man Taking The Trouble Of Remembering.
Funny
Men
Serious Man
The Present Is The Living Sum-total Of The Whole Past.
Past
History
Whole
I've Got A Great Ambition To Die Of Exhaustion Rather Than Boredom.
Inspirational
Ambition
Boredom
All Human Souls, Never So Bedarkened, Love Light; Light Once Kindled Spreads Till All Is Luminous.
Light
Soul
Spread
The Hell Of These Days Is The Fear Of Not Getting Along, Especially Of Not Making Money.
Making Money
Hell
These Days
There Is A Great Discovery Still To Be Made In Literature, That Of Paying Literary Men By The Quantity They Do Not Write.
Writing
Men
Discovery
Reform Is Not Pleasant, But Grievous; No Person Can Reform Themselves Without Suffering And Hard Work, How Much Less A Nation.
Hard Work
Suffering
Reform
Leaders: Captains Of Industry.
Leadership
Captains
Industry
He That Has A Secret Should Not Only Hide It, But Hide That He Has It To Hide.
Secret
Luck
Should
We Are To Remember What An Umpire Nature Is; What A Greatness, Composure Of Depth And Tolerance There Is In Her. You Take Wheat To Cast Into The Earth's Bosom; Your Wheat May Be Mixed With Chaff, Chopped Straw, Barn-sweepings, Dust And All Imaginable Rubbish; No Matter: You Cast It Into The Kind Just Earth; She Grows The Wheat, - The Whole Rubbish She Silently Absorbs, Shrouds It In, Says Nothing Of The Rubbish.
Greatness
Umpires
Dust
History Is Philosophy Teaching By Experience.
Philosophy
Teaching
Nature Alone Is Antique, And The Oldest Art A Mushroom.
Art
Mushrooms
Antiques
A Word Spoken In Season, At The Right Moment; Is The Mother Of Ages.
Mother
Opportunity
Age
Democracy Is, By The Nature Of It, A Self-canceling Business: And Gives In The Long Run A Net Result Of Zero.
Running
Zero
Self
The Suffering Man Ought Really To Consume His Own Smoke; There Is No Good In Emitting Smoke Till You Have Made It Into Fire.
Men
Fire
Suffering
The World Is A Thing That A Man Must Learn To Despise, And Even To Neglect, Before He Can Learn To Reverence It, And Work In It And For It.
Men
World
Neglect
Give Us, O Give Us The Man Who Sings At His Work! Be His Occupation What It May, He Is Equal To Any Of Those Who Follow The Same Pursuit In Silent Sullenness. He Will Do More In The Same Time . . . He Will Do It Better . . . He Will Persevere Longer. One Is Scarcely Sensible To Fatigue While He Marches To Music. The Very Stars Are Said To Make Harmony As They Revolve In Their Spheres.
Time
Stars
Work
Love Is Ever The Beginning Of Knowledge As Fire Is Of Light.
Life
Knowledge
Love Is
There Are Good And Bad Times, But Our Mood Changes More Often Than Our Fortune.
Mood Changes
Bad Times
Fortune
After All Manner Of Professors Have Done Their Best For Us, The Place We Are To Get Knowledge Is In Books.
Book
Done
Professors
Eyes Bright, With Many Tears, Behind Them.
Eye
Tears
Behinds
Originality Is A Thing We Constantly Clamour For, And Constantly Quarrel With.
Funny Basketball
Originality
Clamour
Insurrection, Never So Necessary, Is A Most Sad Necessity; And Governors Who Wait For That To Instruct Them Are Surely Getting Into The Fatalest Course.
Waiting
Revolution
Courses
Lord Bacon Could As Easily Have Created The Planets As He Could Have Written Hamlet.
Lord
Planets
Written
On The Whole, I Would Bid You Stand Up To Your Work, Whatever It May Be, And Not Be Afraid Of It; Not In Sorrows Or Contradictions To Yield, But To Push On Towards The Goal.
Yield
Goal
Training
The Best Effect Of Any Book Is That It Excites The Reader To Self Activity.
Book
Reading
Writing
We Are To Take No Counsel With Flesh And Blood; Give Ear To No Vain Cavils, Vain Sorrows And Wishes; To Know That We Know Nothing, That The Worst And Cruelest To Our Eyes Is Not What It Seems, That We Have To Receive Whatsoever Befalls Us As Sent From God Above, And Say, "it Is Good And Wise,--god Is Great! Though He Slay Me, Yet I Trust In Him." Islam Means, In Its Way, Denial Of Self. This Is Yet The Highest Wisdom That Heaven Has Revealed To Our Earth.
Wise
Mean
Eye
I Should Say Sincerity, A Deep, Great, Genuine Sincerity, Is The First Characteristic Of All Men In Any Way Heroic.
Men
Way
Firsts
He Who Has Health, Has Hope; And He Who Has Hope, Has Everything.
Inspirational
Fitness
Hope
The Wise Man Is But A Clever Infant, Spelling Letters From A Hieroglyphical Prophetic Book, The Lexicon Of Which Lies In Eternity.
Inspirational
Wise
Clever
Freedom Is The One Purport, Wisely Aimed At, Or Unwisely, Of All Man's Struggles, Toilings And Sufferings, In This Earth.
Freedom
Struggle
Men
The Three Great Elements Of Modern Civilization, Gun Powder, Printing, And The Protestant Religion.
Gun
Civilization
Religion
Rest Is A Fine Medicine. Let Your Stomachs Rest, Ye Dyspeptics; Let Your Brain Rest, You Wearied And Worried People Of Business; Let Your Limbs Rest, Ye Children Of Toil!
Children
Medicine
People
Make Yourself An Honest Man, And Then You May Be Sure There Is One Less Rascal In The World.
Honesty
Men
World
Thirty Millions, Mostly Fools.
Funny
Humor
Insulting
Rare Benevolence, The Minister Of God.
Ministers
Benevolence
No Amount Of Ability Is Of The Slightest Avail Without Honor.
Sports
Integrity
Athlete
Pin Your Faith To No Ones Sleeves, Haven't You Two Eyes Of Your Own.
Eye
Two
Independence
If Time Is Precious, No Book That Will Not Improve By Repeated Readings Deserves To Be Read At All.
Time
Book
Reading
History, As It Lies At The Root Of All Science, Is Also The First Distinct Product Of Man's Spiritual Nature, His Earliest Expression Of What May Be Called Thought.
Spiritual
Lying
Science
Out Of Eternity The New Day Is Born; Into Eternity At Night Will Return.
Night
New Day
Return
The Old Cathedrals Are Good, But The Great Blue Dome That Hangs Over Everything Is Better.
Funny
Humor
Blue
I Want To Meet My God Awake.
Death
Want
Awake
I Grow Daily To Honor Facts More And More, And Theory Less And Less.
Honor
Atheism
Facts
Rightly Viewed No Meanest Object Is Insignificant; All Objects Are As Windows Through Which The Philosophic Eye Looks Into Infinitude Itself.
Philosophy
Eye
Looks
No Pressure, No Diamonds.
Uplifting
Good Life
Failure
When I Gaze Into The Stars, They Look Down Upon Me With Pity From Their Serene And Silent Spaces, Like Eyes Glistening With Tears Over The Little Lot Of Man. Thousands Of Generations, All As Noisy As Our Own, Have Been Swallowed Up By Time, And There Remains No Record Of Them Any More. Yet Arcturus And Orion, Sirius And Pleiades, Are Still Shining In Their Courses, Clear And Young, As When The Shepherd First Noted Them In The Plain Of Shinar!
Stars
Eye
Men
All Great Peoples Are Conservative.
Conservative
It Is Not A Lucky Word, This Name Impossible; No Good Comes Of Those Who Have It So Often In Their Mouths.
Attitude
Names
Lucky
The Person Who Cannot Laugh Is Not Only Ready For Treason, And Deceptions, Their Whole Life Is Already A Treason And Deception.
Laughter
Laughing
Deception
The Modern Majesty Consists In Work. What A Man Can Do Is His Greatest Ornament, And He Always Consults His Dignity By Doing It.
Work
Men
Majesty
Fancy That Thou Deservest To Be Hangedthou Wilt Feel It Happiness To Be Only Shot: Fancy That Thou Deservest To Be Hanged Ina Hair Halter, It Will Be A Luxury To Die In Hemp.
Luxury
Hair
Guilt
If You Are Looking At Data Over And Over You Better Be Taking Away Valuable Insight Every Time. If You Are Constantly Looking At Data That Isn't Leading To Strategic Action Stop Wasting Your Time And Look For More Actionable Analytics.
Data
Over You
Looks
The Latest Gospel In This World Is, Know Thy Work And Do It.
World
This World
Duty
The First Duty Of Man Is That Of Subduing Fear.
Men
Firsts
Duty
Wealth Of A Man Is The Number Of Things Which He Loves And Blesses Which He Is Loved And Blessed By.
Blessed
Men
Numbers
What This Country Needs Is A Man Who Knows God Other Than By Heresay.
Country
Men
Needs
Society Is Founded Upon Cloth.
The Great Soul Of This World Is Just.
Justice
Soul
World
A Noble Book! All Men's Book!
Bible
Book
Men
Great Men Are The Inspired Texts Of That Divine Book Of Revelations, Whereof A Chapter Is Completed From Epoch To Epoch, And By Some Named History.
Book
Men
History
And Yet Without Labour There Were No Ease, No Rest, So Much As Conceivable.
Ease
Labor
Labour
Song Is The Heroics Of Speech.
Song
Speech
I Don't Like To Talk Much With People Who Always Agree With Me. It Is Amusing To Coquette With An Echo For A Little While, But One Soon Tires Of It.
Fake People
Echoes
Coquette
Rest Is For The Dead.
Death
Dying
Endurance Is Patience Concentrated.
Inspirational
Patience
Perseverance
Whose School-hours Are All The Days And Nights Of Our Existence.
Education
School
Night
Wealth Has More And More Increased, And At The Same Time Gathered Itself More And More Into Masses, Strangely Altering The Old Relations, And Increasing The Distance Between The Rich And The Poor.
Distance
Wealth
Rich
For The Superior Morality, Of Which We Hear So Much, We Too Would Desire To Be Thankful: At The Same Time, It Were But Blindness To Deny That This Superior Morality Is Properly Rather An Inferior Criminality, Produced Not By Greater Love Of Virtue, But By Greater Perfection Of Police; And Of That Far Subtler And Stronger Police, Called Public Opinion.
Love
Perfection
Being Thankful
A Man With A Half Volition Goes Backwards And Forwards, And Makes No Way On The Smoothest Road; A Man With A Whole Volition Advances On The Roughest, And Will Reach His Purpose, If There Be Even A Little Worthiness In It. The Man Without A Purpose Is Like A Ship Without A Rudder - A Waif, A Nothing, A No Man. Have A Purpose In Life And Having It, Throw Such Strength Of Mind And Muscle Into Your Work As God Has Given You.
Attitude
Men
Mind
Life Is A Series Of Lessons That Have To Be Understood.
Teaching
Learning
Lessons
Trending Author
Michael Jackson
Claudia Black
John Leguizamo
Ravi Shankar
Buddy Hackett
Donna Mills
Category
Information