The suffering man ought really to consume his own smoke; there is no good in emitting smoke till you have made it into fire.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Suffering should be turned into productive action rather than just complaints.
- In plain terms
- Turn your pain into something useful instead of just complaining.
- What can you take from it?
- Convert struggles into productive energy instead of just expressing them.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How can you turn your struggle into work?
- When is venting more useful than acting?
Another view
Sometimes expressing pain is necessary before it can be resolved.
More from Thomas Carlyle
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.
Permalink to quote #85 'A fair day's wages for a fair day's work': it is as just a demand as governed men ever made of governing. It is the everlasting right of man.
Permalink to quote #87 All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.
Permalink to quote #84
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