Thomas Carlyle Quotes

In history, nothing happens by accident. If it happened, you can bet someone planned it.

I never do anything by chance.

Have a very good reason for everything you do.

Reason also is choice.

Success is never an accident it's always on purpose.

One of the things I really learned from my first term is the importance of focusing. In that sense, it is a deliberate effort. What I look at with each vote is that priority of whether it's good for the middle class or not.

Everything's intentional. It's just filling in the dots.

You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.

Real luxury is customization.

I'm the policy-maker; I'm the lawmaker.

Know what you're trying to do before you do it. Turning knobs at random isn't enlightening any more than throwing paint at a wall blindfolded will let you paint a nice picture.

I like to be a strategic policy guy.

I've never been a fan of just doing. I like to do things for a reason.

Thought precedes action, action does not always precede thought.

I’d rather be slow and right, than be fast and dead.

The challenge of our times is to leave nothing to chance.

Relying on luck … does not constitute a policy.

A surprising number of government committees will make important decisions on fundamental matters with less attention than each individual would give to buying a suit.

It is graceful in a man to think and to speak with propriety, to act with deliberation, and in every occurrence of life to find out and persevere in the truth. On the other hand, to be imposed upon, to mistake, to falter, and to be deceived, is as ungraceful as to rave or to be insane.

Deliberate before you begin; but, having carefully done so, execute with vigour.

Let us distinguish between acting intentionally and acting deliberately or on purpose, as far as this can be done by attending to what language can teach us.

Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it.

Part of success is preparation on purpose.

When things have a meaning for us, we mean (intend, propose) what we do: when they do not, we act blindly, unconsciously, unintelligently.

There is one quality more important than know-how.... This is know-how by which we determine not only how to accomplish our purposes, but what our purposes are to be.