Instead of boiling up individuals into the species, I would draw a chalk circle round every individuality, and preach to it to keep within that, and preserve and cultivate its identity.

Jane Welsh Carlyle (January 14 1801 – April 21 1866) was the wife of Thomas Carlyle and a well-known writer of letters.

Quotes

  • If they had said that the sun or the moon had gone out of the heavens, it could not have struck me with the idea of a more awful and dreary blank in creation than the words: "Byron is dead!"
    • Letter to Thomas Carlyle (20 May 1824]).
  • A positive engagement to marry a certain person at a certain time, at all haps and hazards, I have always considered the most ridiculous thing on earth.
    • Letter to Thomas Carlyle (January 1825).
  • In spite of the honestest efforts to annihilate my I-ity, or merge it in what the world doubtless considers my better half, I still find myself a self-subsisting, and, alas! self-seeking me.
  • Oh Lord! If you but knew what a brimstone of a creature I am behind all this beautiful amiability!
    • Letter to Eliza Stodart (29 February 1836).
  • Instead of boiling up individuals into the species, I would draw a chalk circle round every individuality, and preach to it to keep within that, and preserve and cultivate its identity.
    • Letter to John Sterling (5 August 1845).
  • I can see that the Lady has a genius for ruling, whilst I have a genius for not being ruled.
    • Letter to Thomas Carlyle (28 September 1845).
  • The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope.
    • Journal entry (August 1849).
  • When one has been threatened with a great injustice, one accepts a smaller as a favour.
    • Journal entry (25 November 1855).
  • Not a hundredth part of the thoughts in my head have ever been or ever will be spoken or written — as long as I keep my senses, at least.
    • Journal entry (16 July 1858).
  • The triumphal-procession-air which, in our manners and customs, is given to marriage at the outset — that singing of Te Deum before the battle has begun.

Quotes about Carlyle

  • Jenny kissed me when we met,
    Jumping from the chair she sat in;
    Time, you thief, who love to get
    Sweets into your list, put that in.
    Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
    Say that health and wealth have missed me;
    Say I'm growing old, but add
    Jenny kissed me.
This article is issued from Wikiquote. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.