On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History
Carlyle believed that history is not a tide of impersonal forces but a story written by extraordinary individuals. In this fiery 1841 volume, based on lectures delivered to Victorian audiences, he mounts a passionate defense of the Great Man theory: that prophets, poets, kings, and thinkers have fundamentally shaped civilization, and that the impulse to worship these figures is not superstition but recognition of genuine greatness. Ranging from Odin's Norse mythology to Mahomet's desert prophethood, from Oliver Cromwell to Napoleon, from Shakespeare's plays to Burns's verses, Carlyle constructs an impassioned taxonomy of heroism. He argues that hero-worship lies at the heart of human nature, that we recognize in certain individuals a quality that transcends the ordinary. Whether you agree with him or not, this book remains a bracing, argumentative, often beautiful meditation on what makes some people shape history while others are shaped by it. It is essential reading for anyone who has ever wondered whether individuals matter, or whether we are all merely leaves blown by the wind.
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“What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.””
— Thomas Carlyle
“Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less scoundrel in the world.””
— Thomas Carlyle
“The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only.””
— Thomas Carlyle
“The true University of these days is a Collection of Books.””
— Thomas Carlyle
“It is a great shame for anyone to listen to the accusation that Islam is a lie and that Muhammad was a fabricator and a deceiver. We saw that he remained steadfast upon his principles, with firm determination; kind and generous, compassionate, pious, virtuous, with real manhood, hardworking and sincere. Besides all these qualities, he was lenient with others, tolerant, kind, cheerful and praiseworthy and perhaps he would joke and tease his companions. He was just, truthful, smart, pure, magnanimous and present-minded; his face was radiant as if he had lights within him to illuminate the darkest of nights; he was a great man by nature who was not educated in a school nor nurtured by a teacher as he was not in need of any of this.””
— Thomas Carlyle
“In books lies the soul fo the whole past time.””
— Thomas Carlyle
“There needs not a great soul to make a hero; there needs a god-created soul which will be true to its origin; that will be a great soul!””
— Thomas Carlyle
“You may take my purse; but I cannot have my moral Self annihilated. The purse is any Highwayman's who might meet me with a loaded pistol: but the Self is mine and God my Maker's; it is not yours; and I will resist you to the death, and revolt against you ...””
— Thomas Carlyle
“Intellect is not speaking and logicising; it is seeing and ascertaining.””
— Thomas Carlyle
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Carlyle, Thomas. On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. Lex, lex-books.com/book/on-heroes-hero-worship-and-the-heroic-in-history-561526d7-2def-4668-b476-ffd108d41b83.Carlyle, T. (n.d.). On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/on-heroes-hero-worship-and-the-heroic-in-history-561526d7-2def-4668-b476-ffd108d41b83Carlyle, Thomas. On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/on-heroes-hero-worship-and-the-heroic-in-history-561526d7-2def-4668-b476-ffd108d41b83.
