Thomas Carlyle Quotes

If the Coastal Republic had believed in the existence of virtue, it could at least have aspired to hypocrisy.

Those who are most moral are farthest from the problem.

I have yet to meet a man as fond of high moral conduct as he is of outward appearances.

After all, why be good? How many will actually believe it of us?

It's better to die doing good than to live doing evil.

Virtue is nothing but an act of loving that which is to be beloved, and that act is prudence, from whence not to be removed by constraint is fortitude; not to be allured by enticements is temperance; not to be diverted by pride is justice.

We have next to consider the formal definition of virtue.

Whenever you put happiness before righteousness, you will be doomed to misery. That is the great message of the Bible from beginning to end. They alone are truly happy who are seeking to be righteous.

Honor is like the eye, which cannot suffer the least impurity without damage. It is a precious stone, the price of which is lessened by a single flaw.

... men of highest genius have been too frequently of extremely shaky morals.

The generous person is always just, and the just who is always generous may, unannounced, approach the throne of heaven.

[T]here is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists . . . an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.

I have seen men incapable of the sciences, but never any incapable of virtue.

A man may be very sincere in good principles, without having good practice.

An honest man here lies at rest, the friend of man the friend of truth the friend of age and guide of youth. Few hearts like his with virtue warmed, few heads with knowledge so informed. If there's another world, he lives in bliss. If there is none, he made the best of this.

To many people virtue consists chiefly in repenting faults, not in avoiding them.

There is no greater wealth than Virtue,And no greater loss than to forget it.

If throughout your life you abstain from murder, theft, fornication, perjury, blasphemy, and disrespect toward your parents, church, and your king, you are conventionally held to deserve moral admiration even if you have never done a single kind, generous or useful action. This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm.

It is easy to be virtuous in prospective.

To be good and disagreeable is high treason against the royalty of virtue.

Integrity means always doing what is right and good, regardless of the immediate consequences.

Virtue has many preachers, but few martyrs.

The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people.

Moralism doesn't produce morality; it produces immorality.