Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.
SAMUEL SMILESSuccess 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.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness.
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There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.
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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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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 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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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 possession of a library, or the free use of it, no more constitutes learning, than the possession of wealth constitutes generosity.
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The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
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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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Riches do not constitute any claim to distinction. It is only the vulgar who admire riches as riches.
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Cheerfulness is also an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart.
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The cheapest of all things is kindness, its exercise requiring the least possible trouble and self-sacrifice. Win hearts, said Burleigh to Queen Elizabeth, and you have all men’s hearts and purses.
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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 reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted.
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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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