All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble... a life of ease is not for any man, nor for any god.

Thomas Carlyle

Past and Present

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More information about this quote

Topic

Idleness Dignity of work Work

Author

Thomas Carlyle

Source

Past and Present

Language

English

Time

1843 1840s 19th century

Occupation

Philosopher Writer

From

United Kingdom Europe

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. Past and Present. London: Chapman and Hall, 1843, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. Past and Present, edited by David R. Sorensen and Brent E. Kinser. Oxford University Press, 2023, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Thomas Carlyle about idleness: “All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble... a life of ease…”
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A quote by Thomas Carlyle about idleness: “All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble... a life of ease…”
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A quote by Thomas Carlyle about idleness: “All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble... a life of ease…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by Thomas Carlyle

Not a "gay science," I should say, like some we have heard of; no, a dreary, desolate, and, indeed, quite abject and distressing one: what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science.

Thomas Carlyle

More information about this quote
Topic
Economics

Author

Thomas Carlyle
Language
English
Time
1849 1840s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Carlyle, Thomas [published anonymously]. "Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question." Fraser's Magazine, Dec. 1849.

Current Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. "The Nigger Question." The Works of Thomas Carlyle, edited by Henry Duff Traill. Vol. 29, Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Another quote from the 1840s

Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be; in this direction their unbounded imagination grows and dilates beyond all measure.... Democracy, which shuts the past against the poet, opens the future before him.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America

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More information about this quote
Topic
Democracy

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville
Source
Democracy in America
Genre
Political literature
Language
French
Time
1840 1840s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. De La Democratie en Amerique [Democracy in America]. Vol. 2, London: Saunders and Otley, 1840, sect. 1, ch. 17.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II, translated by Henry Reeve. Bantam Classics, 2000, vol. 2, sect. 1, ch. 17.

Another quote about Work

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.

Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

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More information about this quote
Topic
Alienating work Work

Author

Mark Twain
Source
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Medium
Novel
Genre
Children's literature Adventure novel
Language
English
Time
1876 1870s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1876, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, edited by Peter Stoneley. Oxford University Press, 2008, ch. 2.