Success treads on the heels of every right effort; and though it is possible to overestimate success to the extent of almost deifying it, as is sometimes done, still in any worthy pursuit it is meritorious.
SAMUEL SMILESMere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an individual reform.
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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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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The principal industrial excellence of the English people lay in their capacity of present exertion for a distant object.
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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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Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.
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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.
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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.
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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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The truest politeness comes of sincerity.
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He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.
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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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Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.
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To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind.
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The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted.
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For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.
SAMUEL SMILES