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Samuel Smiles quotes
Samuel Smiles (1812 to 1904) was a Scottish doctor turned newspaper editor and railway administrator. His book Self-Help appeared in 1859 and sold enormously. Quill quotes it alongside Character and Thrift, which followed in the 1870s.
Today the title suggests bath salts. Smiles meant something more like night school, and his pages are full of engineers, potters and craftsmen who taught themselves. He wrote biographies of engineers too. He can moralise, and his view of poverty is very much of its time, but on patience and workmanship he still has useful things to say.
60 lines shown, from the 151 in Quill. Only lines checked against a public-domain text appear on this page.
Self-Help
Read Self-Help on Project Gutenberg
Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so blind as men are.
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Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so blind as men are. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators. In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most …
Nothing that is of real worth can be achieved without courageous working.
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Nothing that is of real worth can be achieved without courageous working. Man owes his growth chiefly to that active striving of the will, that encounter with difficulty, which we call effort; and it is astonishing to find how often results apparently impracticable are thus made possible. An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into …
Cheerfulness gives elasticity to the spirit.
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One of the most valuable, and one of the most infectious examples which can be set before the young, is that of cheerful working. Cheerfulness gives elasticity to the spirit. Spectres fly before it; difficulties cause no despair, for they are encountered with hope, and the mind acquires that happy disposition to improve opportunities which rarely fails of success. The fervent spirit is always a healthy and happy spirit; working cheerfully itself, …
EXAMPLE is one of the most potent of instructors, though it teaches without a tongue.
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EXAMPLE is one of the most potent of instructors, though it teaches without a tongue. It is the practical school of mankind, working by action, which is always more forcible than words. Precept may point to us the way, but it is silent continuous example, conveyed to us by habits, and living with us in fact, that carries us along. Good advice has its weight: but without the accompaniment of a good example it is of comparatively small influence; and it will be found that the common saying of “Do as I say, not as I do,” is usually reversed in the actual experience of life.
The good purpose once formed must be carried out with alacrity and without swerving.
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Mere wishes and desires but engender a sort of green sickness in young minds, unless they are promptly embodied in act and deed. It will not avail merely to wait as so many do, “until Blucher comes up,” but they must struggle on and persevere in the mean time, as Wellington did. The good purpose once formed must be carried out with alacrity and without swerving. In most conditions of life, drudgery and toil are to be cheerfully endured as the best and most wholesome discipline. “In life,” said Ary Scheffer, “nothing bears fruit except by labour of mind or body. To strive and still strive—such is life; and in this respect mine is …
Character is human nature in its best form.
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Character is human nature in its best form. It is moral order embodied in the individual. Men of character are not only the conscience of society, but in every well-governed State they are its best motive power; for it is moral qualities in the main which rule the world. Even in war, Napoleon said the moral is to the …
Employ the same means, and the same results will follow.
Given perseverance and energy soon becomes habitual.
Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.
In study, as in business, energy is the great thing.
Time is the only little fragment of Eternity that belongs to man; and, like life, it can never be recalled.
The value of knowledge to any man consists not in its quantity, but mainly in the good uses to which he can apply it.
To have a daily appointed task of even common drudgery to do makes the rest of life feel all the sweeter.
Nothing can compensate for the loss of hope in a man: it entirely changes the character.
Whatever children see they unconsciously imitate.
Without the necessity of encountering difficulty, life might be easier, but men would be worth less.
How cheaply happiness can be given!
True courage and gentleness go hand in hand.
Nobody knows what he can do till he has tried; and few try their best till they have been forced to do it.
We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.
The school of Difficulty is the best school of moral discipline, for nations as for individuals.
Practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, always produces its due effects.
Everything that we learn is the mastery of a difficulty; and the mastery of one helps to the mastery of others.
Yield once, and a portion of virtue has gone.
Every great work is the result of vast preparatory training.
We must repeat and again repeat; facility will come with labour.
The most profitable study is that which is conducted with a definite aim and object.
Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.
Character
Read Character on Project Gutenberg
A household cannot be governed by lying; nor can a nation.
Forbearance and self-control smooth the road of life, and open many ways which would otherwise remain closed.
Practical wisdom is only to be learnt in the school of experience.
Courage may be displayed in everyday life as well as in historic fields of action.
Personal beauty soon passes; but beauty of mind and character increases in attractiveness the older it grows.
Good sense, disciplined by experience and inspired by goodness, issues in practical wisdom.
Difficulty, and even failure, are far better teachers.
Sloth never climbed a hill, nor overcame a difficulty that it could avoid.
Men of sterling character have the courage to speak the truth, even when it is unpopular.
The zealous energetic man unconsciously carries others along with him.
Let a man give the reins to his impulses and passions, and from that moment he yields up his moral freedom.
Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived.
Wherever there is power to use or to direct, there is duty.
HOME is the first and most important school of character.
The wear-and-tear of rust is even faster than the tear-and-wear of work.
We can be wrongheaded and wronghearted, or the reverse, as we ourselves determine.
Great minds are rich in radiating force, not only exerting power, but communicating and even creating it.
To live really, is to act energetically.
Great evils are in some cases only to be met by resistance; they cannot be wept down, but must be battled down.
The best relief is WORK, engaged in with interest and diligence.
WORK is one of the best educators of practical character.
The world will be to each one of us very much what we make it.
Men often conquer difficulties because they feel they can.
Thrift
Read Thrift on Project Gutenberg
To spirited people, difficult tasks are usually the most delightful ones.
Thrift does not require superior courage, nor superior intellect, nor any superhuman virtue.
The miser is never satisfied.
To provide only for the present, is the sure means to sacrificing the future.
Keeping up appearances is one of the greatest social evils of the age.
If we would have others elevated, we must elevate ourselves.
The success of a man in business depends on his attention to little things.
Let a man resolve and determine that he will advance, and the first step of advancement is already made.
Time can be economized by system.
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