Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such; it is an accident, not a property of man.
Thomas CarlyleHow indestructibly the good grows, and propagates itself, even among the weedy entanglements of evil.
Thomas CarlyleMen 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 Carlyle