The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Words without action hold little value and should be avoided.
This quote emphasizes the importance of aligning words with actions. It suggests that mere talk can be meaningless unless it leads to tangible outcomes, advocating for a focus on deeds rather than empty promises or discussions.
Themes
ActionTalkMeaninglessWordsSpeech
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about leadership, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of taking initiative.
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
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Fear is felt by writers at every level. Anxiety accompanies the first word they put on paper and the last.
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Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge, it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason exceeds the knowledge of the senses.
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You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then - to learn.
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If you get all the facts, your judgment can be right; if you don't get all the facts, it can't be right.
Bernard BaruchRead
A mind that is always comparing, always measuring, will always engender illusion. If I am measuring myself against you, who are clever, more intelligent, I am struggling to be like you and I am denying myself as I am. I am creating an illusion.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead