The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Honor is essential for the true value of one's abilities.
This quote emphasizes the importance of honor in conjunction with one's abilities. It suggests that talent or skill alone is insufficient; it must be underpinned by integrity and moral character to truly matter and contribute positively to society.
Themes
HonorAbilityIntegrityValuesCharacter
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech, to highlight the importance of character alongside skills.
More from Thomas Carlyle
All quotes βThirty millions, mostly fools.
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There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
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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.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil; it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
Thomas CarlyleRead
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 CarlyleRead
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