No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
SAMUEL SMILESSelf-respect is the noblest garment with which a man can clothe himself, the most elevating feeling with which the mind can be inspired.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober. Such reforms can only be effected by means of individual action, economy and self-denial; by better habits, rather than by greater rights.
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For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.
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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.
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Character is itself a fortune.
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There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is difficult to be mistaken.
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The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.
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All life is a struggle…. Under competition the lazy man is put under the necessity of exerting himself; and if he will not exert himself, he must fall behind. If he do not work, neither shall he eat.
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Woman, above all other educators, educates humanly. Man is the brain, but woman is the heart, of humanity.
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Riches do not constitute any claim to distinction. It is only the vulgar who admire riches as riches.
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Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.
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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.
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He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour.
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Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.
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The women of the poorer classes make sacrifices, and run risks, and bear privations, and exercise patience and kindness to a degree that the world never knows of, and would scarcely believe even if it did know.
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Riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to action; and in many cases they are quite as much a misfortune as a blessing.
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Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.
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Hope… is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.
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Commit a child to the care of a worthless, ignorant woman, and no culture in after-life will remedy the evil you have done.
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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.
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Conscience is that peculiar faculty of the soul which may be called the religious instinct.
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The possession of a library, or the free use of it, no more constitutes learning, than the possession of wealth constitutes generosity.
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Great men stamp their mind upon their age and nation.
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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.
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Men cannot be raised in masses as the mountains were in he early geological states of the world. They must be dealt with as units; for it is only by the elevation of individuals that the elevation of the masses can be effectively secured.
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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.
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The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.
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