It's 'the most notable moment'

"In every phenomenon, the beginning remains always the most notable moment.  Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do."  - Thomas Carlyle 

 

Born in Scotland on Dec. 4, 1795, Carlyle was a philosopher, teacher and journalist whose work influenced a generation of Victorian era writers, including Charles Dickens and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  

 

He was mesmerized by the concept of how "heroes" in our world shaped people’s hopes and aspirations and created the basis for great writing - or writer’s moments, if you will.  Primarily an essayist for several major newspapers, he also wrote a dozen books, the most famous being On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. 

 

Beyond his writing, Carlyle was a champion for the establishment of great libraries.  Often frustrated with the lack of good books in society, he was instrumental in founding the London Library and making books available to a broader reading public.

 

“In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream," he wrote . "The greatest university of all is a collection of books.”