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Quote#Speech

Has any man, or any society of men, a truth to speak, a piece of…

Quote byThomas Carlyle · 1795–1881

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Signs of the Times (1829).

English (original)

Has any man, or any society of men, a truth to speak, a piece of spiritual work to do; they can nowise proceed at once and with the mere natural organs, but must first call a public meeting, appoint committees, issue prospectuses, eat a public dinner; in a word, construct or borrow machinery, wherewith to speak it and do it. Without machinery, they were hopeless, helpless.

— Thomas Carlyle

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