QuoteProject
It is a strange trade that of advocacy. Your intellect, your highest heavenly gift is hung up in the shop window like a loaded pistol for sale.
Thomas Carlyle
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Advocacy is a unique profession where one's intellect and talents are displayed publicly for judgment and use.

In this quote, Thomas Carlyle reflects on the peculiar nature of advocacy, emphasizing that one's intellect and skills are put on display like a product available for purchase. This metaphor suggests that advocacy involves a significant sacrifice of personal identity as individuals must allow their ideas and intellect to be scrutinized and judged by others, making it a complex and sometimes challenging trade.

Themes

AdvocacyIntellectTradeIdentityPublic

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the importance of public service, one might say, 'As Thomas Carlyle noted, advocacy reveals the unique trade of showcasing our intellect for the greater good.'

More from Thomas Carlyle

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Thirty 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

Similar quotes

Don’t let any emotional thought concerning success or failure, fame or gain, overtake you, and don’t dwell upon them. Give up your personal shortcomings, such as foolish talk, distracting activities, and absentmindedness. Train in being totally gentle in all physical, verbal, or mental activities. Don’t ponder the flaws of others; think instead of their good sides.
Tulku Urgyen RinpocheRead
Your talk," I said, "is surely the handiwork of wisdom because not one word of it do I understand.
Flann O'BrienRead
I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.
Albert EinsteinRead
If you want to be honest with yourself, you have to take criticism, even if you attract adverse comments from others.
Mahathir MohamadRead
I've never known, at least a modern historical instance, where the truth wasn't superior to distortion in every way.
Shelby FooteRead
Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.