The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Have not I myself known five hundred living soldiers sabred into crows' meat for a piece of glazed cotton, which they call their flag; which had you sold it at any market-cross, would not have brought above three groschen?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the value placed on national symbols compared to the sacrifices made by soldiers.
Thomas Carlyle's quote reflects on the absurdity of nationalism and the high cost of war paid by soldiers for something as seemingly trivial as a flag. It questions the true worth of symbols that can incite valor and sacrifice, suggesting that the lives lost are disproportionately valued compared to the objects that represent a nation.
Themes
NationalismSacrificeSymbolismWarFlag
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech discussing the costs of war, one might use this quote to highlight the human toll versus the value of symbols.
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.
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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