The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Skepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things. A sad case for him when all that he can manage to believe is something he can button in his pocket, and with one or the other organ eat and digest! Lower than that he will not get.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Skepticism affects both intellect and morality, hindering one's ability to believe in meaningful principles.
This quote by Thomas Carlyle emphasizes that skepticism is not merely an intellectual stance but also a moral failing that leads to a depletion of the soul. He argues that a person must have something to believe in to truly live; without meaningful beliefs, one is left with superficial convictions, reduced to the physical needs of the body rather than the deeper pursuits of the spirit and intellect.
Themes
SkepticismBeliefMoralitySoulFaith
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of belief and skepticism.
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.
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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