It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to “scour the anchor.
SAMUEL SMILESProgress however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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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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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But all play and no work makes him something worse.
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Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.
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Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book.
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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.
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Cecil’s dispatch of business was extraordinary, his maxim being, “The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.”
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He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour.
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The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him.
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Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness.
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Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.
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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.
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The very greatest things – great thoughts, discoveries, inventions – have usually been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length established with difficulty.
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Make good thy standing place, and move the world.
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Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in after life the images first presented to it.
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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.
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Character is itself a fortune.
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The healthy spirit of self-help created among working people would, more than any other measure, serve to raise them as a class; and this, not by pulling down others, but by levelling them up to a higher and still advancing standard of religion, intelligence, and virtue.
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Woman is the heart of humanity, its grace, ornament, and solace.
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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.
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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.
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Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.
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No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
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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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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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Men whose acts are at variance with their words command no respect, and what they say has but little weight.
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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.
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