The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
In a certain sense all men are historians.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Everyone has their own perspective and interpretation of history.
This quote by Thomas Carlyle suggests that every individual plays a role in shaping history through their experiences, memories, and interpretations. It highlights the idea that history is not just a collection of events but also the stories that people tell about those events, thus emphasizing the subjective nature of historical understanding.
Themes
HistoryPerspectiveInterpretationStoriesExperience
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the importance of personal narratives in history courses.
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.
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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.
Thomas CarlyleRead
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