“Every noble work is at first impossible.”

From Past and Present (1843), Chapter XI : Labour
The Wikipedia page for Thomas Carlyle has links to the Project Gutenberg version of this book
1840s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 29, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Every noble work is at first impossible." by Thomas Carlyle?
Thomas Carlyle photo
Thomas Carlyle 481
Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian… 1795–1881

Related quotes

James Hudson Taylor photo

“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”

James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) Missionary in China

(Leslie T. Lyall. A Passion for the Impossible: The Continuing Story of the Mission Hudson Taylor Began. London: OMF Books, 1965, 5).

William Wetmore Story photo

“Of every noble work the silent part is best,
Of all expression that which can not be expressed.”

William Wetmore Story (1819–1895) American sculptor, art critic, poet, translator and editor

The Unexpressed.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Kailash Satyarthi photo

“I hope that youngsters and civil society organizations and every Indian will feel proud. It is a noble cause to work for the rights of children.”

Kailash Satyarthi (1954) Indian children's rights activist

Times of India interview (2014)
Context: I hope that youngsters and civil society organizations and every Indian will feel proud. It is a noble cause to work for the rights of children. It is a movement against child labour and everyone must join it.

Thomas Carlyle photo

“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 (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Bk. III, ch. 4.
1840s, Past and Present (1843)

Albert Pike photo

“There is a perennial nobleness and even sacredness in work.”

Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. XXII : Knight of the Royal Axe, or Prince of Libanus, p. 341
Context: There is a perennial nobleness and even sacredness in work. Be he never so benighted and forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in Idleness alone is there perpetual Despair.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

H 1
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook H (1784-1788)

Karen Blixen photo
Peter F. Drucker photo

“As with every phenomenon of the objective universe, the first step toward understanding work is to analyze it.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1960s - 1980s, MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973), Part 1, p. 182

Bette Davis photo

“Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.”

Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States

From Davis' running commentary in Whitney Stine's Mother Goddam https://books.google.com/books?id=kxs_AAAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22Attempt+the+impossible+in+order+to+improve+your+work.%22 (1974), p. 123 ISBN 0-8015-5184-6

Related topics