Riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to action; and in many cases they are quite as much a misfortune as a blessing.
SAMUEL SMILESThe brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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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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The principal industrial excellence of the English people lay in their capacity of present exertion for a distant object.
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Marriage like government is a series of compromises. One must give and take, repair and restrain, endure and be patient.
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Mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an individual reform.
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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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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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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.
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Woman is the heart of humanity, its grace, ornament, and solace.
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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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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But all play and no work makes him something worse.
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Character is undergoing constant change, for better or for worse–either being elevated on the one hand, or degraded on the other.
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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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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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Character is itself a fortune.
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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.
SAMUEL SMILES