Jane Welsh Carlyle Quotes

• The only thing that makes one place more attractive to me than another is the quantity of heart I find in it.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Heart, Attractive, Attractiveness

  Thomas Carlyle, Jane Welsh Carlyle (1977). “The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle: Jan. 1829-Sept. 1831”

  49 Copy quote

• When one has been threatened with a great injustice, one accepts a smaller as a favour.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Favour, Injustice, Accepting

  Jane Welsh Carlyle (1977). “I Too Am Here: Selections from the Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, p.207, Cambridge University Press

  7 Copy quote

• I am not at all the sort of person you and I took me for.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Personality, Accepting Reality, Persons

  Letter to Thomas Carlyle, 7 May 1822, in C. R. Sanders et al. (eds.) 'The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle' (1970) vol. 2

  7 Copy quote

• the less one does, as I long ago observed, the less one can find time to do.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Long Ago, Long, Doe

  Jane Welsh Carlyle (1977). “I Too Am Here: Selections from the Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, p.277, Cambridge University Press

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Long, Senses, Written

  Thomas Carlyle, Charles Richard Sanders, Clyde de L. Ryals, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Kenneth J. Fielding (2006). “The collected letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle”

  4 Copy quote

• Blessed be the inventor of photography! I set him above even the inventor of chloroform! It has given more positive pleasure to poor suffering humanity than anything else that has ''cast up'' in my time or is like to -- this art by which even the ''poor'' can possess themselves of tolerable likenesses of their absent dear ones. And mustn't it be acting favorably on the morality of the country?

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Photography, Country, Art

  10 Copy quote

• How many precious things do we not already possess which others have not - have hardly an idea of! Let us enjoy these, then, and bless God that we are permitted to enjoy them, rather than importune His goodness with vain longings for more.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Ideas, Longing, Goodness

  Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle (1903). “New Letters and Memorials”

  5 Copy quote

• The longer I live, the more I am certified that men, in all that relates to their own health, have not common sense! whether it be their pride, or their impatience, or their obstinancy, or their ingrained spirit of contradiction, that stupefies and misleads them, the result is always a certain amount of idiocy, or distraction in their dealings with their own bodies! ... either by their wild impatience of bodily suffering, and the exaggerated moan they make over it, or else by their reckless defiance of it, and neglect of every dictate of prudence!

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Pride, Men, Common Sense

  5 Copy quote

• People who are so dreadfully "devoted" to their wives are so apt, from mere habit, to get devoted to other people's wives as well.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  People, Wife, Infidelity

  Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle, James Anthony Froude (2011). “Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, p.101, Cambridge University Press

  8 Copy quote

• all griefs, when there is no bitterness in them, are soothed down by time.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Grief, Bitterness

  Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle (1887). “Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle”

  5 Copy quote

• The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Life, Hope, Preparation

  Jane Welsh Carlyle (1977). “I Too Am Here: Selections from the Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, p.186, Cambridge University Press

  6 Copy quote

• The glittering baits of titles and honours are only for children and fools.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Children, Fool, Bait

  Jane Welsh Carlyle (1977). “I Too Am Here: Selections from the Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, p.40, Cambridge University Press

  7 Copy quote

• I rely on the promise, God is kind to women, fools, and drunk people.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  People, Drunk, Promise

  Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle (1887). “Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle”

  4 Copy quote

• 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!

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Moon, Ideas, Heaven

  Thomas Carlyle, Jane Welsh Carlyle (1908). “The Love Letters of Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh”

  7 Copy quote

• cracked things often hold out as long as whole things; one takes so much better care of them!

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Long, Care, Cracked

  Thomas Carlyle, Charles Richard Sanders, Clyde de L. Ryals, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Kenneth J. Fielding (1970). “The collected letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle”

  6 Copy quote

• The longer one lives in this hard world motherless, the more a mother's loss makes itself felt.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Mother, Loss, World

  Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle (1887). “Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle”

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Self, Justice, Diversity

  Jane Welsh Carlyle (1977). “I Too Am Here: Selections from the Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, p.7, Cambridge University Press

  8 Copy quote

• Never does one feel oneself so utterly helpless as in trying to speak comfort for great bereavement.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Death, Bereavement, Trying

  Jane Welsh Carlyle (1883). “Letters and Memorials...”

  65 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Hazards, Engagement, Earth

  Jane Welsh Carlyle (1977). “I Too Am Here: Selections from the Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, p.41, Cambridge University Press

  4 Copy quote

• Teaching, I find, is not the most amusing thing on earth; in fact, with a stupid lump for a Pupil, it is about the most irksome.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Stupid, Teaching, Facts

  Thomas Carlyle, Jane Welsh Carlyle (1909). “The Love Letters of Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh”

  4 Copy quote

• Homeopathy - an invention of the Father of Lies! I have tried it and found it wanting. I would swallow their whole doles medicine chest for sixpence, and be sure of finding myself neither better nor worse for it.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Lying, Father, Medicine

  Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle (1903). “New Letters and Memorials”

  4 Copy quote

• On earth the living have much to bear; the difference is chiefly in the manner of bearing, and my manner of bearing is far from being the best.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Differences, Earth, Bears

  Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle (1887). “Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle”

  8 Copy quote

• Young children are such nasty little beasts!

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Children, Littles, Nasty

  Thomas Carlyle, Jane Welsh Carlyle (1909). “The Love Letters of Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh”

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Air, Singing, Battle

  Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle, James Anthony Froude (2011). “Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, p.2, Cambridge University Press

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Circles, Justice, Diversity

  Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle, James Anthony Froude (2011). “Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, p.322, Cambridge University Press

  8 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Thomas Carlyle

James Anthony Froude

Edward Irving

Kathryn Hughes

Teresa de la Parra

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

George Henry Lewes

Harriet Martineau