It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to “scour the anchor.
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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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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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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Woman, above all other educators, educates humanly. Man is the brain, but woman is the heart, of humanity.
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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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Luck whines; labor whistles.
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Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.
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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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The principal industrial excellence of the English people lay in their capacity of present exertion for a distant object.
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Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.
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Work is one of the best educators of practical character.
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To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind.
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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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It will generally be found that men who are constantly lamenting their ill luck are only reaping the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement, and improvidence, or want of application.
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Woman is the heart of humanity, its grace, ornament, and solace.
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The great and good do no die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens.
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Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.
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There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.
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Those who aren’t making mistakes probably aren’t making anything.
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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.
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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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Cheerfulness is also an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart.
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Life is of little value unless it be consecrated by duty.
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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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Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.
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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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Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.
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