The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.
Interpretation
Encouraging discussion can lead to inaction among people.
This quote suggests that engaging individuals in conversation about a particular subject may lead to their complacency or inaction regarding that topic. When people discuss matters extensively, they may feel they have addressed the issue adequately, resulting in a reluctance to take action or make decisions. Therefore, it implies that sometimes talking too much about something can prevent necessary action.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a meeting to emphasize the importance of taking action rather than just discussing ideas.
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.
Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.
Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown
Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself.
When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see.
This grieved me heartily ; and now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.
I am a true laborer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness, glad of other men's good, content with my harm.
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