Samuel Smiles Quotes

The highest culture is not obtained from the teacher when at school or college, so much as by our ever diligent self-education when we become men.

Those who aren't making mistakes probably aren't making anything.

Great men are always exceptional men; and greatness itself is but comparative. Indeed, the range of most men in life is so limited that very few have the opportunity of being great.

Manners are the ornament of action.

Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.

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

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

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

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

Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh to -day as when they first passed through their authors' minds ages ago.

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

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.

Conscience is that peculiar faculty of the soul which may be called the religious instinct.

The duty of helping one's self in the highest sense involves the helping of one's neighbors.

The truest politeness comes of sincerity.

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

Any number of depraved units cannot form a great nation.

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

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.

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

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.

The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear.

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

All that is great in man comes through work; and civilization is its product.

If character be irrecoverably lost, then indeed there will be nothing left worth saving.

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

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.

Knowledge conquered by labor becomes a possession -a property entirely our own.

The egotist is next door to a fanatic.

Sympathy is the golden key that unlocks the hearts of others.

A woman's best qualities do not reside in her intellect, but in her affections. She gives refreshment by her sympathies, rather than by her knowledge.

Men whose acts are at variance with their words command no respect, and what they say has but little weight.

Opportunities ... fall in the way of every man who is resolved to take advantage of them.

The great lesson of biography is to show what man can be and do at his best. A noble life put fairly on record acts like an inspiration to others.

Commit a child to the care of a worthless, ignorant woman, and no culture in after-life will remedy the evil you have done.

Great men stamp their mind upon their age and nation.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an individual reform.

Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.

The great leader attracts to himself men of kindred character, drawing them towards him as the loadstone draws iron.

The cheapest of all things is kindness, its exercise requiring the least possible trouble and self-sacrifice. Win hearts, said Burleigh to Queen Elizabeth, and you have all men's hearts and purses.