The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Setting goals provides direction and purpose, just as a rudder steers a ship.
This quote by Thomas Carlyle emphasizes the importance of having clear goals in life. Without goals, an individual lacks direction, much like a ship adrift at sea without a rudder, which would metaphorically lead to aimless wandering and an inability to reach any desired destination.
Themes
GoalsDirectionLifePurposeMotivation
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech to encourage students to set objectives for their future.
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
Be motivated by something beyond simply money or glory.
Mark MansonRead
Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.
Elbert HubbardRead
Athletes need to enjoy their training. They don't enjoy going down to the track with a coach making them do repetitions until they're exhausted. From enjoyment comes the will to win.
Arthur LydiardRead
You and you alone are the only person that can live the life that writes the story that you were meant to tell. And the world needs your story because the world needs your voice.
Kerry WashingtonRead
I come from - I came from Wales, and it's a strong, butch society. We were in the war and all that. People didn't waste time feeling sorry for themselves. You had to get on with it. So my credo is get on with it. I don't waste time being soft. I'm not cold, but I don't like being, wasting my time with - life's too short.
Anthony HopkinsRead
All of us have the capacity to attract to ourselves what seems to be missing in our lives.
Wayne DyerRead