Thomas Carlyle Book Quotations

O thou who art able to write a Book, which once in the two centuries or oftener there is a man gifted to do, envy not him whom they name City-builder, and inexpressibly pity him whom they name Conqueror or City-burner! Thou too art a Conqueror and Victor; but of the true sort, namely over the Devil: thou too hast built what will outlast all marble and metal, and be a wonder-bringing City of the Mind, a Temple and Seminary and Prophetic Mount, whereto all kindreds of the Earth will pilgrim.

In the poorest cottage are Books: is one Book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to whatever is Deepest in him.

Great men are the inspired texts of that divine Book of Revelations, whereof a chapter is completed from epoch to epoch, and by some named History.

I call the book of Job, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with the pen.

If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all.

May blessings be upon the head of Cadmus, the Phoenicians, or whoever it was that invented books.

If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and author-craft are of small amount to that.

A noble book! all men's book!

O thou who art able to write a book which once in the two centuries or oftener there is a man gifted to do, envy not him whom they name city-builder, and inexpressibly pity him whom they name conqueror or city-burner.

Happy the people whose annals are blank in the history books!

Books are a triviality. Life alone is great.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

A man ought to inquire and find out what he really and truly has an appetite for; what suits his constitution; and that, doctors tell him, is the very thing he ought to have in general. And so with books.

All that a university or final highest school. can do for us is still but what the first school began doing--teach us to read. We learn to read in various languages, in various sciences; we learn the alphabet and letters of all manner of books. But the place where we are to get knowledge, even theoretic knowledge, is the books themselves. It depends on what we read, after all manner of professors have done their best for us. The true university of these days is a collection of books.

After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books.

If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated reading deserves to be read at all.

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

In books lies the soul of the whole past time.

A collection of books is the best of all universities.

No good book, or good thing of any sort, shows its best face at first.

Biography is the most universally pleasant and profitable of all reading.

No good book or good thing of any kind shows it best face at first. No the most common quality of in a true work of art that has excellence and depth, is that at first sight it produces a certain disappointment.

Of all the things which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the things we call books.

My books are friends that never fail me.

In books lies the soul fo the whole past time.

A good book is the purest essence of a human soul.

The true university of these days is a collection of books.

The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity.

If a book comes from the heart it will contrive to reach other hearts. All art and author craft are of small account to that.