Force, force, everywhere force; we ourselves a mysterious force in the centre of that. "There is not a leaf rotting on the highway but has Force in it: how else could it rot?" [As used in his time, by the word force, Carlyle means energy.]

Books are a triviality. Life alone is great.

In every object there is inexhaustible meaning.

To say that we have a clear conscience is to utter a solecism; had we never sinned we should have had no conscience. Were defeat unknown, neither would victory be celebrated by songs of triumph.

Time is the silent, never-resting thing ... rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing oceantide, on which we and all the universe swim.

Over the times thou hast no power. . . . Solely over one man thou hast quite absolute power. Him redeem and make honest.

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.