No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, could ever compel the soul of man to believe or to disbelieve: it is his own indefeasible light, that judgment of his; he will reign and believe there by the grace of God alone!

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.]

The mystical bond of brotherhood makes all men brothers.

Armed Soldier, terrible as Death, relentless as Doom; doing God's judgement on the Enemies of God. It is a phenomenon not of joyful nature; no, but of awful, to be looked at with pious terror and awe.

A true delineation of the smallest man is capable of interesting the greatest man.

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.