The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
O Heaven, it is mysterious, it is awful to consider that we not only carry each a future Ghost within him; but are, in very deed, Ghosts!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the idea that we are all haunted by our own future and past selves.
In this quote, Thomas Carlyle expresses a profound contemplation on the nature of existence, suggesting that we each bear the burden of futures we cannot see, akin to ghosts. This introspective view encourages us to recognize that our actions and choices create echoes of ourselves in time, making us both the architects and specters of our own destinies.
Themes
FutureGhostExistenceSelfChoicesLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of our actions on our future, this quote can highlight the responsibility we have for our lives.
More from Thomas Carlyle
All quotes βThirty 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
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How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past?
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There is no present or future-only the past, happening over and over again-now.
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