Character is undergoing constant change, for better or for worse–either being elevated on the one hand, or degraded on the other.
SAMUEL SMILESNational progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring him news of a legacy; labor turns out at six, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence.
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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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There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is difficult to be mistaken.
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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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No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
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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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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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Obedience, submission, discipline, courage–these are among the characteristics which make a man.
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Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.
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Those who have most to do, and are willing to work, will find the most time.
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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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Enthusiasm, the sustaining power of all great action.
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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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Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.
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Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.
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Example teaches better than precept. It is the best modeler of the character of men and women. To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind him.
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Luck whines; labor whistles.
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Great men stamp their mind upon their age and nation.
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Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh to -day as when they first passed through their authors’ minds ages ago.
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The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted.
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The most influential of all the virtues are those which are the most in request for daily use. They wear the best, and last the longest.
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It is energy – the central element of which is will – that produces the miracle that is enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is what is called force of character and the sustaining power of all great action.
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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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The work of many of the greatest men, inspired by duty, has been done amidst suffering and trial and difficulty. They have struggled against the tide, and reached the shore exhausted.
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Great men are always exceptional men; and greatness itself is but comparative. Indeed, the range of most men in life is so limited that very few have the opportunity of being great.
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The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.
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