Samuel Smiles Quotes

Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect. The former is more the product of the brain, the latter of heart-power; and in the long run it is the heart that rules in life. ~ Samuel Smiles

On the other hand, if surrounded by ignorance, coarseness, and selfishness, they will unconsciously assume the same character, and grow up to adult years rude, uncultivated, and all the more dangerous to society if placed amidst the manifold temptations of what is called civilised life. "Give your child to be educated by a slave," said an ancient Greek, "and instead of one slave, you will then have two." The child cannot help imitating what he sees. Everything is to him a model - of manner, of gesture, of speech, of habit, of character. "For the child," says Richter, "the most important era of life is that of childhood, when he begins to colour and mould himself by companionship with others. ~ Samuel Smiles

The career of a great man remains an enduring monument of human energy. The man dies and disappears, but his thoughts and acts survive and leave an indelible stamp upon his race. ~ Samuel Smiles

A place for everything and everything in its place - via http://bit.ly/mUa1mm ~ Samuel Smiles

The iron rail proved a magicians' road. It virtually reduced England to a sixth of its size. It brought the country nearer to the town and the town to the country ... It energized punctuality, discipline, and attention; and proved a moral teacher by the influence of example. ~ Samuel Smiles

The experience gathered from books, though often valuable,is but the nature of learning whereas the experience gained from actual life is of the nature of wisdom ~ Samuel Smiles

Labour may be a burden and a chastisement, but it is also an honour and a glory. Without it, nothing can be accomplished. ~ Samuel Smiles

There are many persons of whom it may be said that they have no other possession in the world but their character, and yet they stand as firmly upon it as any crowned king. ~ Samuel Smiles

The great high-road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast, well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful; success treads on the heels of every right effort. ~ Samuel Smiles

Hope ... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles. ~ Samuel Smiles

There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences. ~ Samuel Smiles

It is not ease, but effort-not facility, but difficulty, makes men. There is, perhaps, no station in life in which difficulties have not to be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved. ~ Samuel Smiles

The Romans rightly employed the same word (virtus) to designate courage, which is, in a physical sense, what the other is in a moral; the highest virtue of all being victory over ourselves. ~ Samuel Smiles

The most influential of all the virtues are those which are the most in request for daily use. They wear the best, and last the longest. ~ Samuel Smiles

Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others. ~ Samuel Smiles

Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates. ~ Samuel Smiles

Self-control is only courage under another form. ~ Samuel Smiles

All experiences of life seems to prove that the impediments thrown in the way of the human advancement may for the most part be overcome by steady good conduct, honest zeal, activity, perseverance and above all, by a determined resolution to surmount. ~ Samuel Smiles

Thus the brave and aspiring life of one man lights a flame in the minds of others of like faculties and impulse; and where there is equally vigorous effort, like distinction and success will almost surely follow. Thus the chain of example is carried down through time in an endless succession of links
admiration exciting imitation, and perpetuating the true aristocracy of genius. ~ Samuel Smiles

He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour. ~ Samuel Smiles

Those who aren't making mistakes probably aren't making anything. ~ Samuel Smiles

It is idleness that is the curse of man - not labour. Idleness eats the heart out of men as of nations, and consumes them as rust does iron. ~ Samuel Smiles

If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower. ~ Samuel Smiles

The egotist is next door to a fanatic. ~ Samuel Smiles

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery ~ Samuel Smiles

The path of success in business is invariably the path of common-sense. Nothwithstanding all that is said about "lucky hits," the best kind of success in every man's life is not that which comes by accident. The only "good time coming" we are justified in hoping for is that which we are capable of making for ourselves. ~ Samuel Smiles

With will one can do anything. ~ Samuel Smiles

Make good thy standing place, and move the world. ~ Samuel Smiles

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. ~ Samuel Smiles

Liberty is the result of free individual action,energy and independence. ~ Samuel Smiles

Many are the lives of men unwritten, which have nevertheless as powerfully influenced civilization and progress as the more fortunate Great whose names are recorded in biography. Even the humblest person, who sets before his fellows an example of industry, sobriety, and upright honesty of purpose in life, has a present as well as a future influence upon the well-being of his country; for his life and character pass unconsciously into the lives of others, and propagate good example for all time to come. ~ Samuel Smiles

The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly. ~ Samuel Smiles

Admiration of great men, living or dead, naturally evokes imitation of them in a greater or less degree. ~ Samuel Smiles

A fig-tree looking on a fig-tree becometh fruitful, says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with children; their first great instructor is example. ~ Samuel Smiles

There is far too much croaking among young men. ~ Samuel Smiles

Samuel Smiles ends his book with the following moving story of the "gentleman" general:

The gentleman is characterized by his sacrifice of self, and preference of others, in the little daily occurrences of life…we may cite the anecdote of the gallant Sir Ralph Abercromby, of whom it is related, that, when mortally wounded in the battle of Aboukir, and, to ease his pain, a soldier's blanket was placed under his head, from which he experienced considerable relief.
He asked what it was.
"It's only a soldier's blanket," was the reply.
"Whose blanket is it?" said he, half lifting himself up.
"Only one of the men's."
"I wish to know the name of the man whose blanket this is."
"It is Duncan Roy's, of the 42nd, Sir Ralph."
"Then see that Duncan Roy gets his blanket this very night."

Even to ease his dying agony the general would not deprive the private soldier of his blanket for one night.
As Samuel wrote: "True courage and gentleness go hand in hand."
It was in this family, belief system, and heritage that Walter, my great-grandfather, grew up and dared to dream. ~ Bear Grylls

Indeed, we can always better understand and appreciate a man's real character by the manner in which he conducts himself towards those who are the most nearly related to him, and by his transaction of the seemingly commonplace details of daily duty, than by his public exhibition of himself as an author, an orator, or a statesman. ~ Samuel Smiles

Length of years is no proper test of length of life. A man's life is to be measured by what he does in it and what he feels in it. ~ Samuel Smiles

The possession of a library, or the free use of it, no more constitutes learning, than the possession of wealth constitutes generosity. ~ Samuel Smiles

Commonplace though it may appear, this doing of one's duty embodies the highest ideal of life and character. There may be nothing heroic about it; but the common lot of men is not heroic. ~ Samuel Smiles

Cheerfulness is also an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart. ~ Samuel Smiles

What we are accustomed to decry as great social evils, will, for the most part, be found to be only the out-growth of our own perverted life; and though we may endeavor to cut them down and extirpate them by means of law, they will only spring up again with fresh luxuriance in some other form, unless the conditions of human life and character are radically improved. ~ Samuel Smiles

Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side. Dr. Johnson has said that the habit of looking at the best side of a thing is worth more to a man than a thousand pounds a year. And we possess the power, to a great extent, of so exercising the will as to direct the thoughts upon objects calculated to yield happiness and improvement rather than their opposites. ~ Samuel Smiles

True politeness is consideration for the opinions of others. It has been said of dogmatism that it is only puppyism come to its full growth; and certainly the worst form this quality can assume is that of opinionativeness and arrogance. ~ Samuel Smiles

The best school of discipline is home. Family life is God's own method of training the young, and homes are very much as women make them. ~ Samuel Smiles

Utilitarianism had found [in Samuel Smiles' Self-Help] its portrait gallery of heroes, inscribed with a vigorous exhortation to all men to strive in their image; this philistine romanticism established the bourgeois hero-prototype the penniless office-boy who works his way to economic fortune and this wins his way into the mercantile plutocracy. ~ John Carroll

Life is of little value unless it be consecrated by duty. ~ Samuel Smiles

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us ... Hope sweetens the memory of experiences well loved. It tempers our troubles to our growth and our strength. It befriends us in the dark hours, excites us in bright ones. It lends promise to the future and purpose to the past. It turns discouragement to determination.
Samuel Smiles
~ Samuel Smiles

A man may be accomplished in art, literature, and science, and yet, in honesty, virtue, truthfulness, and the spirit of duty, be entitled to take rank after many a poor and illiterate peasant. ~ Samuel Smiles

The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once. ~ Samuel Smiles

Biographies of great, but especially of good men are most instructive and useful as helps, guides, and incentives to others. Some of the best are almost equivalent to gospels,
teaching high living ,high thinking, and energetic action, for their own and, the world's good. ~ Samuel Smiles

When typhus or cholera breaks out, they tell us that Nobody is to blame. That terrible Nobody! How much he has to answer for. More mischief is done by Nobody than by all the world besides. ~ Samuel Smiles

No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober. ~ Samuel Smiles

The government of a nation itself is usually found to be but the reflux of the individuals composing it. The government that is ahead of the people will be inevitably dragged down to their level, as the government that is behind them will in the long run be dragged up. ~ Samuel Smiles

Woman, above all other educators, educates humanly. Man is the brain, but woman is the heart, of humanity. ~ Samuel Smiles

Alexander the Great valued learning so highly, that he used to say he was more indebted to Aristotle for giving him knowledge than to his father Philip for life. ~ Samuel Smiles

An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing. ~ Samuel Smiles

The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him. ~ Samuel Smiles

Honorable industry always travels the same road with enjoyment and duty, and progress is altogether impossible without it. ~ Samuel Smiles

Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry. ~ Samuel Smiles

Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book. ~ Samuel Smiles

The influence of woman is the same everywhere. Her condition influences the morals, manners, and character of the people of all countries. Where she is debased, society is debased; where she is morally pure and enlightened, society will be proportionately elevated. ~ Samuel Smiles

The truest politeness comes of sincerity. ~ Samuel Smiles

This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron. ~ Samuel Smiles

It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit in life. Human knowledge is but an accumulation of small facts made by successive generations of men
the little bits of knowledge and experience carefully treasured up by them growing at length into a mighty pyramid. ~ Samuel Smiles

Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it. ~ Samuel Smiles

National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice. ~ Samuel Smiles

The principal industrial excellence of the English people lay in their capacity of present exertion for a distant object. ~ Samuel Smiles

It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done. ~ Samuel Smiles

To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind. ~ Samuel Smiles

Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in afterlife the images first presented to it. The first thing continues forever with the child. The first joy, the first sorrow, the first success, the first failure, the first achievement, the first misadventure, paint the foreground of his life. ~ Samuel Smiles

Stothard learned the art of combining colors by closely studying butterflies wings; he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas. ~ Samuel Smiles

Great men stamp their mind upon their age and nation. ~ Samuel Smiles

The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great though that evil be, but he who is in the thrall of his own moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice. ~ Samuel Smiles

Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions. ~ Samuel Smiles

It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune ... ~ Samuel Smiles

Character is property. It is the noblest of possessions. ~ Samuel Smiles

Example teaches better than precept. It is the best modeler of the character of men and women. To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind him. ~ Samuel Smiles

Experience serves to prove that the worth and strength of a state depend far less upon the form of its institutions than upon the character of its men; for the nation is only the aggregate of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a question of personal, improvement. ~ Samuel Smiles

The crown and glory of life is character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general good-will; dignifying every station, and exalting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth, and secures all the honor without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tell; for it is the result of proved honor, rectitude, and consistency-qualities which, perhaps more than any other, command the general confidence and respect of mankind. ~ Samuel Smiles

Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness. ~ Samuel Smiles

Marriage like government is a series of compromises. One must give and take, repair and restrain, endure and be patient. ~ Samuel Smiles

The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve. ~ Samuel Smiles

Necessity is always the first stimulus to industry, and those who conduct it with prudence, perseverance and energy will rarely fail. Viewed in this light, the necessity of labor is not a chastisement, but a blessing,
the very root and spring of all that we call progress in individuals and civilization in nations. ~ Samuel Smiles

Riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to action; and in many cases they are quite as much a misfortune as a blessing. ~ Samuel Smiles

Persons with comparatively moderate powers will accomplish much, if they apply themselves wholly and indefatigably to one thing at a time. ~ Samuel Smiles

Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only. ~ Samuel Smiles

Time is of no account with great thoughts. They are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author's minds, ages ago. ~ Samuel Smiles

Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable. ~ Samuel Smiles

Energy enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgery and dry details and caries him onward and upward to every station in life. ~ Samuel Smiles

The great and good do no die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens. ~ Samuel Smiles

Nothing is more common than energy in money-making, quite independent of any higher object than its accumulation. A man who devotes himself to this pursuit, body and soul, can scarcely fail to become rich. Very little brains will do; spend less than you earn; add guinea to guinea; scrape and save; and the pile of gold will gradually rise. ~ Samuel Smiles

Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty. ~ Samuel Smiles

The work of many of the greatest men, inspired by duty, has been done amidst suffering and trial and difficulty. They have struggled against the tide, and reached the shore exhausted. ~ Samuel Smiles

There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is difficult to be mistaken. ~ Samuel Smiles

Home is the first and most important school of character. It is there that every human being receives his best moral training, or his worst; for it is there that he imbibes those principles of conduct which endure through manhood, and cease only with life. ~ Samuel Smiles

Character is undergoing constant change, for better or for worse
either being elevated on the one hand, or degraded on the other. ~ Samuel Smiles

Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them. ~ Samuel Smiles

Those who have most to do, and are willing to work, will find the most time. ~ Samuel Smiles

Riches and rank have no necessary connection with genuine gentlemanly qualities. The poor man with rich spirit is in all ways superior to the rich man with a poor spirit. To borrow St. Paul's words, the former is as "having nothing, yet possessing all things," while the other, though possessing all things has nothing. Only the poor in spirit are really poor. He who has lost all, but retains his courage, cheerfulness, hope, virtue, and self respect, is still rich. ~ Samuel Smiles