QuoteProject
All greatness is unconscious, or it is little and naught.
Thomas Carlyle
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True greatness comes from a natural and unconscious place, rather than from forced efforts.

Thomas Carlyle suggests that greatness is not something that can be consciously strived for or manufactured. Instead, it emerges organically from a person's innate qualities and talents. When greatness is pursued with too much awareness or calculation, it diminishes and becomes insignificant. This quote encourages us to trust in our own abilities and let our true selves shine without the burden of self-consciousness.

Themes

GreatnessUnconsciousSuccessTalentInnate

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used during a motivational speech to inspire individuals to embrace their natural talents.

More from Thomas Carlyle

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Thirty millions, mostly fools.
Thomas CarlyleRead
There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
Thomas CarlyleRead
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

Similar quotes

Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Adhere To - Faith, Unity, Sacrifice. Avoid - Back-biting, Falsehood and Crookedness. Admire - Frankness, Honesty, and Large-heartedness. Control - Tongue, Temper, and Tossing of the mind. Cultivate - Cosmic Love, Forgiveness and Patience. Hate - Lust, Anger, and Pride.
SivanandaRead
No one is to blame for our miseries but ourselves.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Robert was never the same after he put on that crown. Some men are like swords, made for fighting. Hang them up and they go to rust.
George R. R. MartinRead
Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.
Kurt VonnegutRead
Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.
Thomas A. EdisonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.