Progress 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.
SAMUEL SMILESBiographies 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.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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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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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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It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit of life.
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Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.
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Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.
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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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Those who aren’t making mistakes probably aren’t making anything.
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Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.
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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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Opportunities fall in the way of every man who is resolved to take advantage of them.
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The best school of discipline is home. Family life is God’s own method of training the young, and homes are very much as women make them.
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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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The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
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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 often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book.
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