The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls!
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that music and song represent the core essence of human experience. Everything else is merely superficial in comparison.
Thomas Carlyle's quote reflects the idea that music is fundamental to the human experience, serving as a profound expression of our inner selves. He suggests that while life may be filled with various external forms and distractions, song captures our deepest emotions and essence. In this sense, song transcends mere entertainment, becoming a vital aspect of our identity and existence.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of art in education, one might say, 'As Carlyle reminds us, all deep things are song, highlighting the crucial role of music in expressing our inner selves.'
More from Thomas Carlyle
All quotes βThirty millions, mostly fools.
There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
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.
Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil; it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
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.
Similar quotes
The audience too should be respected by being presented with a film as they remember it, and for those who have not seen it, as it was intended to be seen. Anything less is a degradation of the film and its audience.
The best stories come out of the truth.
The whole world of publishing is moving to electronic, but when you put a poem on a screen and you increase the type size, the shape of a poem changes.
There's only two givens with choosing acting as a profession: one is you will always be unemployed, always, and it doesn't matter how much money you make, you're still always going to be unemployed; and that you have no power.
The artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom; to that in us which is a gift and not an acquisition-and therefore, more permanently enduring. He speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty and pain.
A precious, mouldering pleasure 't is To meet an antique book In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think, His venerable hand to take, And warming in our own, A passage back, or two, to make To times when he was young. His quaint opinions to inspect, His knowledge to unfold On what concerns our mutual mind, The literature of old.