The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Books should inspire readers to take initiative and engage actively in their own learning.
This quote by Thomas Carlyle emphasizes the transformative power of books. It suggests that the ultimate goal of reading is not merely to acquire information passively, but to stimulate the reader's imagination and encourage them to take action or think critically about the ideas presented, thereby fostering personal growth and creativity.
Themes
BooksReadingSelf-ActivityEducationLearning
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of literacy, one might use this quote to highlight how books empower individuals.
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
Similar quotes
Reading is performance. The reader--the child under the blanket with a flashlight, the woman at the kitchen table, the man at the library desk--performs the work. The performance is silent. The readers hear the sounds of the words and the beat of the sentences only in their inner ear. Silent drummers on noiseless drums. An amazing performance in an amazing theater.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Too often we forget that discipline really means to teach, not to punish. A disciple is a student, not a recipient of behavioural consequences.
Daniel J. SiegelRead
We've found that service learning builds life skills, leadership and a sense of global citizenship that makes helping a lifelong habit.
Craig KielburgerRead
The usual way the people are taught to think in amerika is that each subject is in a little compartment and has no relation to any other subject. For the most part, we receive fragments of unrelated knowledge, and our education follows no logical format or pattern. It is exactly this kind of education that produces people who donβt have the ability to think for themselves and who are easily manipulated.
Assata ShakurRead
Reviewing good puzzle books is frustrating, because you get to page one of the introduction, find a curious puzzle, become engrossed for 20 minutes, miss your stop and then fail to get home in time to say goodnight to the kids.
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You parents can provide no better gift for your children than an education in the liberal arts. House and home burn down, but an education is easy to carry along.
Martin LutherRead