“Sure enough, America is a great, and in many respects a blessed and hopeful phenomenon. Sure enough, these hardy millions of Anglo-Saxon men prove themselves worthy of their genealogy; and, with the axe and plough and hammer, if not yet with any much finer kind of implements, are triumphantly clearing out wide spaces, seedfields for the sustenance and refuge of mankind, arenas for the future history of the world; doing, in their day and generation, a creditable and cheering feat under the sun. But as to a Model Republic, or a model anything, the wise among themselves know too well that there is nothing to be said.”

— Thomas Carlyle

1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), The Present Time (February 1, 1850)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Sure enough, America is a great, and in many respects a blessed and hopeful phenomenon. Sure enough, these hardy millio…" by Thomas Carlyle?

Thomas Carlyle 481

Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian… 1795–1881

Related quotes

“Of America it would ill beseem any Englishman, and me perhaps as little as another, to speak unkindly, to speak unpatriotically, if any of us even felt so. Sure enough, America is a great, and in many respects a blessed and hopeful phenomenon. Sure enough, these hardy millions of Anglosaxon men prove themselves worthy of their genealogy… But as to a Model Republic, or a model anything, the wise among themselves know too well that there is nothing to be said… Their Constitution, such as it may be, was made here, not there… Cease to brag to me of America, and its model institutions and constitutions.”

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

Latter Day Pamphlets http://www.ecn.bris.ac.uk/het/carlyle/latter.htm, No. 1 (1850), p. 23, 24.
1850s

“They are a very great boon to mankind, dentists,’ said Isabel. ‘And I’m not sure that we are grateful enough to them. I’m not sure that we even bother to thank them.’ She paused. Were there any statues of dentists? She thought not. And yet there should be.”

Alexander McCall Smith book The Careful Use of Compliments

The Careful Use of Compliments, chapter 8.
The Sunday Philosophy Club series

“Broadly speaking, the rise of the supermanager is largely an Anglo-Saxon phenomenon.”

Thomas Piketty book Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Source: Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013), p. 315.

“Despite the unquestionable greatness of the Anglo-Saxon genius, it is impossible not to see that the laws of revolutions are least understood precisely in the Anglo-Saxon countries.”

Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Marxist revolutionary from Russia

The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution (1938)

“When the earliest settlers poured into a wild continent there was no one to ask them where they came from. The only question was: Were they sturdy enough to make the journey, were they strong enough to clear the land, were they enduring enough to make a home for freedom, and were they brave enough to die for liberty if it became necessary to do so? And so it has been through all the great and testing moments of American history. Our history this year we see in Vietnam. Men there are dying; men named Fernandez and Zajac and Zelinko and Mariano and McCormick. Neither the enemy who killed them nor the people whose independence they have fought to save ever asked them where they or their parents came from. They were all Americans. It was for free men and for America that they gave their all, they gave their lives and selves. By eliminating that same question as a test for immigration the Congress proves ourselves worthy of those men and worthy of our own traditions as a nation.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

1960s, Remarks at the signing of the Immigration Bill (1965)

“Real independence is a time of new and active creation: people sure enough of themselves to discard their baggage; knowing the past is past, as shaping history, but with a new confident sense of the present and the future, where the decisive meanings and values will be made.”

Raymond Williams (1921–1988) philosopher

1975

“Go poor Devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee? — This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.”

Laurence Sterne book The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Book II, Ch. 12 (Uncle Toby to the fly).
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“Surely mankind has yet to be born. Surely this is true!”

William Styron book The Confessions of Nat Turner

Part II : Old Times Past : Voices, Dreams, Recollections
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967)
Context: “Surely mankind has yet to be born. Surely this is true! For only something blind and uncomprehending could exist in such a mean conjunction with its own flesh, its own kind. How else account for such faltering, clumsy, hateful cruelty? Even the possums and the skunks know better! Even the weasels and the meadow mice have a natural regard for their own blood and kin. Only the insects are low enough to do the low things that people do — like those ants that swarm on poplars in the summertime, greedily husbanding little green aphids for the honeydew they secrete. Yes, it could be that mankind has yet to be born. Ah, what bitter tears God must weep at the sight of the things that men do to other men!” He broke off then and I saw him shake his head convulsively, his voice a sudden cry: “In the name of money! Money! ”

“When things are at their blackest, I say to myself, 'Cheer up, things could be worse.' And sure enough, they get worse.”

Robert Lynn Asprin (1946–2008) American science fiction and fantasy author

“Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music-not too much, or the soul could not sustain it-from time to time.”

Vikram Seth book An Equal Music

Source: An Equal Music

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Thomas Carlyle 481

Related quotes

Related topics