The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Nine-tenths of the miseries and vices of mankind proceed from idleness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Idleness often leads to unhappiness and wrongdoing in people.
This quote by Thomas Carlyle emphasizes that a significant portion of human suffering and immoral behavior is rooted in inactivity. It suggests that when individuals are not engaged in meaningful work or pursuits, they are more likely to fall into negative thoughts and actions, thus pointing to the importance of being productive to lead a fulfilling life.
Themes
IdlenessMiseriesVicesProductivityMeaningful Work
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about the importance of staying active and engaged in your life.
More from Thomas Carlyle
All quotes βThirty 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.
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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We, or at least I, can have no conception of human life and human thought in a hundred years or fifty years. Perhaps my greatest wisdom is the knowledge that I do not know. The sad ones are those who waste their energy in trying to hold it back, for thy can only feel bitterness in loss and no joy in gain.
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