It is no very good symptom, either of nations or individuals, that they deal much in vaticination. Happy men are full of the present, for its bounty suffices them; and wise men also, for its duties engage them. Our grand business undoubtedly is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what clearly lies at hand.
Thomas Carlyle (1872*). “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Burns. Life of Heyne. German playwrights. Voltaire. Novalis. Signs of the times. On history. Appendix: Jean Paul Friedrich Richter's review of Madame De Stael's 'Allemagne.' Schiller, Goethe and Madame De Stael”
