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About this quote

What does it mean?
Writers and poets hold a respected, spiritual role in society.
In plain terms
Literary people are like a holy order.
What can you take from it?
Writers serve a sacred role in culture.

Where it applies

  • academia
  • criticism
  • publishing

Putting it to work

  • respect writers
  • value reading
  • support art

Questions to consider

  • What role do writers play in your life?
  • Should writers be treated with special respect?

Another view

This view may not apply to all types of writing today.

More from Thomas Carlyle

  1. The three great elements of modern civilization, gunpowder, printing, and the Protestant religion.

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  2. In every man's writings, the character of the writer must lie recorded.

    Permalink to quote #18
  3. The great law of culture is: Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

    Permalink to quote #15

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