“Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.”

— Thomas Carlyle, Essays, "Goethe's Helena"

About Thomas Carlyle

1795 – 1881

Scottish historian and essayist, author of "Sartor Resartus".

“Change, indeed, is painful; yet ever needful; and if Memory have its force and worth, so also has Hope.”

“No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.”

“The true University of these days is a collection of Books.”

“The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.”

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”