Thomas Carlyle

"For the superior morality, of which we hear so much, we too would desire to be thankful: at the same time, it were but blindness to deny that this superior morality is properly rather an inferior criminality, produced not by greater love of Virtue, but by greater perfection of Police; and of that far subtler and stronger Police, called Public Opinion."

11 likes

Source: Thomas Carlyle, G. B. Tennyson (1984). “Carlyle Reader”, p.50, CUP Archive

About the author

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Essayist, Historian, Novelist

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish philosopher and historian known for his influential works on history and heroism, particularly 'On Heroes and Hero Worship.'

All quotes by Thomas Carlyle →

Same author

More quotes by Thomas Carlyle

See all →
Thomas Carlyle Essayist, Historian, Novelist

"Long stormy spring-time, wet contentious April, winter chilling the lap of very May; but at length the season of summer does come."

Read quote
Thomas Carlyle Essayist, Historian, Novelist

"No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence."

Read quote