Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a taxing-machine; to the contented, a machine for securing property. Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.
Thomas CarlyleHardened round us, encasing wholly every notion we form is a wrapping of traditions, hearsay's, and mere words.
Thomas CarlylePiety does not mean that a man should make a sour face about things, and refuse to enjoy in moderation what his Maker has given.
Thomas CarlyleNarrative is linear, but action has breadth and depth as well as height and is solid.
Thomas CarlyleDoes it ever give thee pause that men used to have a soul? Not by hearsay alone, or as a figure of speech, but as a thruth that they knew and acted upon. Verily it was another world then, but yet it is a pity we have lost the tidings of our souls. We shall have to go in search of them again or worse in all ways shall befall us.
Thomas Carlyle