The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing truth and power to resolve conflicts.
Thomas Carlyle's quote reflects the idea that when individuals or groups can clearly identify what is right and what is powerful, disputes or battles become unnecessary. The essence of conflict often lies in the search for understanding justice and authority, and once these are understood, the struggles dissipate.
Themes
TruthPowerConflictResolutionBattle
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about conflict resolution in a business meeting.
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.
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Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil; it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
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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 CarlyleRead
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