“Descend where you will into the lower class, in Town or Country, by what avenue you will, by Factory Inquiries, Agricultural Inquiries, by Revenue Returns, by Mining-Labourer Committees, by opening your own eyes and looking, the same sorrowful result discloses itself: you have to admit that the working body of this rich English Nation has sunk or is fast sinking into a state, to which, all sides of it considered, there was literally never any parallel.”

— Thomas Carlyle

1840s, Past and Present (1843)

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

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Thomas Carlyle 481

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

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