The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Setting goals provides direction and purpose, just as a rudder steers a ship.
This quote by Thomas Carlyle emphasizes the importance of having clear goals in life. Without goals, an individual lacks direction, much like a ship adrift at sea without a rudder, which would metaphorically lead to aimless wandering and an inability to reach any desired destination.
Themes
GoalsDirectionLifePurposeMotivation
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech to encourage students to set objectives for their future.
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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I don't teach kids to be number 1. Organizations and people that tell you you have to be number 1; that's not it. You don't have to be number 1. What I teach is to be as good as you can be. Use what you have and be as good as you can be. That's all you can do, anyway.
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Nothing ever built arose to touch the skies unless some man dreamed that it should, some man believed that it could, and some man willed that it must.
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Youβll never achieve 100 percent if 99 percent is okay.
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Didn't get promoted? Good. More time to get better.
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