“All greatness is unconscious, or it is little and naught.”

—  Thomas Carlyle

1830s, Sir Walter Scott (1838)

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 "All greatness is unconscious, or it is little and naught." by Thomas Carlyle?
Thomas Carlyle photo
Thomas Carlyle 481
Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian… 1795–1881

Related quotes

George Herbert photo

“940. The great would have none great, and the little all little.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

Jacula Prudentum (1651)

James Baldwin photo

“The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Source: The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985

Gertrude Stein photo

“A little artist has all the tragic unhappiness and the sorrows of a great artist and he is not a great artist.”

Gertrude Stein book The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

Source: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

C.G. Jung photo

“The great problems of life — sexuality, of course, among others — are always related to the primordial images of the collective unconscious.”

C.G. Jung book Psychological Types

Source: Psychological Types, or, The Psychology of Individuation (1921), Ch. 5, p. 271
Context: The great problems of life — sexuality, of course, among others — are always related to the primordial images of the collective unconscious. These images are really balancing or compensating factors which correspond with the problems life presents in actuality. This is not to be marvelled at, since these images are deposits representing the accumulated experience of thousands of years of struggle for adaptation and existence.

George Gordon Byron photo

“Where is he, the champion and the child
Of all that's great or little, wise or wild”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

St. 3.
The Age of Bronze (1823)
Context: Where is he, the champion and the child
Of all that's great or little, wise or wild;
Whose game was empires, and whose stakes were thrones;
Whose table earth — whose dice were human bones?

China Miéville photo

“I see echoes with lots of books in all my books, some deliberate, some unconscious until later, and as long as that is respectful I think that's great - writing on the shoulders of other writers is a privilege.”

China Miéville (1972) English writer

China Mieville: "My job is not to try to give readers what they want..." http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2012/sep/20/china-mieville-interview, theguardian.com, Thursday 20 September, 2012.

James Russell Lowell photo

“The wisest man could ask no more of Fate
Than to be simple, modest, manly, true,
Safe from the Many — honored by the Few;
To count as naught in World or Church or State;
But inwardly in secret to be great.”

James Russell Lowell Sonnet

Sonnet, Jeffries Wyman (1874)

Karl G. Maeser photo

“The fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom. This life is one great object lesson to practice on the principles of immortality and eternal life. Man grows with his higher aims. Let naught that is unholy enter here.”

Karl G. Maeser (1828–1901) prominent Utah educator and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Written on a chalk board during his Nov. 9th, 1900 visit to Maeser Elementary School in Provo, Utah; Maeser Chalkboards Preserved http://education.byu.edu/news/2005/01/01/maeser-chalkboards-preserved|date=1

Rita Rudner photo

“I love to sleep. Do you? Isn't it great? It really is the best of both worlds. You get to be alive and unconscious.”

Rita Rudner (1953) American comedian
J.M. DeMatteis photo

“I’ve realized over the years that, with rare exceptions, most writer’s block isn’t writer’s block at all: It’s necessary time that allows the unconscious mind to do its deep work. The great “Ah-Ha!””

J.M. DeMatteis (1953) comics illustrator

moments don’t usually come at the keyboard. They come when I’m lying on the floor, staring into space (or banging my head against the wall in frustration). All of a sudden the Unconscious Camera turns on, a movie starts playing in my head-and there it is: The Big Moment. Or the Whole Damn Story. And, in many ways, I had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
A Conversation With The Legendary J.M. DeMatteis! (2004)

Related topics