The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
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
Interpretation
It is better to be passionate and take risks than to avoid making decisions out of fear.
This quote by Thomas Carlyle emphasizes the value of passion and decisiveness. It suggests that a person who approaches life with enthusiasm and a willingness to embrace uncertainty is more admirable than someone who is paralyzed by the fear of making mistakes or expressing their opinions. In essence, action and fervor are celebrated over indecision and caution.
In practice
In a motivational speech about pursuing dreams, one could use this quote to encourage the audience to take risks.
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thirty millions, mostly fools.
There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
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.
Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil; it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
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.
NOT I - NOT ANYONE else, can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself.
We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.
Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.
None so little enjoy themselves, and are such burdens to themselves, as those who have nothing to do. Only the active have the true relish of life.
Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.
Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.
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