The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Neither had Watt of the Steam engine a heroic origin, any kindred with the princes of this world. The princes of this world were shooting their partridges... While this man with blackened fingers, with grim brow, was searching out, in his workshop, the Fire-secret.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights how great inventions often arise from humble beginnings rather than noble or heroic circumstances.
Thomas Carlyle's quote reflects on the true nature of innovation and discovery, emphasizing that significant advancements, like the steam engine created by James Watt, are often born not from privilege or nobility, but from hard work and dedication in obscurity. While the elite indulge in their leisure pursuits, it is the industrious individuals, often overlooked, who delve into the depths of knowledge and labor to uncover revolutionary ideas that shape the world.
Themes
InnovationScienceHard WorkInventionSteam Engine
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a motivational speech to aspiring scientists and inventors.
More from Thomas Carlyle
All quotes →Thirty millions, mostly fools.
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There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
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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.
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Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil; it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
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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.
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