The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Pin your faith to no ones sleeves, haven't you two eyes of your own.
Interpretation
Rely on your own judgment rather than blindly following others.
This quote emphasizes the importance of using your own discernment and critical thinking instead of placing your trust entirely in someone else's opinions or actions. It serves as a reminder that each individual has the capacity to see and judge things for themselves, encouraging personal responsibility and independence in decision-making.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-reliance and decision-making.
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.
There is no limit to the ingenuity of man if it is properly and vigorously applied under conditions of peace and justice.
The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it.
The sad ones are those who waste their energy in trying to hold it back, for they can only feel bitterness in loss and no joy in gain.
Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself.
EVERYTHING that happens in the universe starts with an INTENTION
That's not such a bad thing,' he said to me. 'In nightmares we can think the worst. That's what they're for, I guess.
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