“ Nature finds a bill against you; your 'Strength' is not Strength, but Futility! ”
Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present (1843). copy citation
| Author | Thomas Carlyle |
|---|---|
| Source | Past and Present |
| Topic | futility strength |
| Date | 1843 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/13534/pg13534-images.html |
Context
“Cotton can be spun and sold, Lancashire operatives can be got to spin it, and at length one has the woven webs and sells them, by following Nature's regulations in that matter: by not following Nature's regulations, you have them not. You have them not;—there is no Cotton-web to sell: Nature finds a bill against you; your 'Strength' is not Strength, but Futility! Let faculty be honoured, so far as it is faculty. A man that can succeed in working is to me always a man.
How one loves to see the burly figure of him, this thick-skinned, seemingly opaque, perhaps sulky, almost stupid Man of Practice, pitted against some light—adroit Man of Theory, all equipt with clear logic, and able anywhere to give you Why for Wherefore!”
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