A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one. – Thomas Carlyle
To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself. – Thomas Carlyle
Good breeding differs, if at all, from high breeding only as it gracefully remembers the rights of others, rather than gracefully insists on its own rights. – Thomas Carlyle
Stern accuracy in inquiring, bold imagination in describing, these are the cogs on which history soars or flutters and wobbles. – Thomas Carlyle
Such reproductions may not interest the reader; but after all, this is my autobiography, not his; he is under no obligation to read further in it; he was under none to begin. A modest or inhibited autobiography is written without entertainment to the writer and read with distrust by the reader. – Neville Cardus