Samuel Smiles
Scottish author and reformer, 1812-1904
60 quotes.
Quotes by Samuel Smiles
- The cheapest of all things is kindness, its exercise requiring the least possible trouble and self-sacrifice.
- The conviction is extending that diligence is the mother of good luck; in other words, that a man's success in life will be proportionate to his efforts, to his industry, to his attention to small things.
- The desire must ripen into purpose and effort; and one energetic attempt is worth a thousand aspirations.
- The first step in debt is like the first step in falsehood, involving the necessity of going on in the same course, debt following debt, as lie follows lie.
- 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.
- The great lesson of Biography is to show what man can be and do at his best.
- The true basis of cheerfulness is love, hope, and patience.
- 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.
- To be worth anything, character must be capable of standing firm upon its feet in the world of daily work, temptation, and trial; and able to bear the wear and tear of actual life. Cloistered virtues do not count for much.
- To think we are able is almost to be so; to determine upon attainment is frequently attainment itself. Thus earnest resolution has often seemed to have about it almost a savor of omnipotence.
- Truthfulness is at the foundation of all personal excellence.
- Truthfulness is the foundation of all personal excellence. It exhibits itself in conduct. It is rectitude, truth in action, and shines through every word and deed.
- We can finish nothing in this life, but we can make a beginning, and bequeath a noble example.
- We have to be on our guard against small troubles, which, by encouraging, we are apt to magnify into great ones.
- We have to keep our minds and hearts open, and never be ashamed to learn, with the assistance of those who are wiser and more experienced than ourselves.
- 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.
- We may make the best of life, or we may make the worst of it; and it depends very much upon ourselves whether we extract joy or misery from it.
- While cheerfulness of disposition is a great source of enjoyment in life, it is also a great safeguard of character.
- WORK is one of the best educators of practical character.
- Work is the law of our being--the living principle that carries men and nations onward.