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Enthusiasm, the sustaining power of all great action.

Samuel Smiles

National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice.
SAMUEL SMILES

Industry National Progress Selfish
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.
SAMUEL SMILES

Bed Foundation Lying Pregnant
Those who have most to do, and are willing to work, will find the most time.
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Time Willing Work
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.
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Employment Issue Man Observation
Any number of depraved units cannot form a great nation.
SAMUEL SMILES

Greatness Nation
Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.
SAMUEL SMILES

Active Best Help Man Nature Necessary
The duty of helping one’s self in the highest sense involves the helping of one’s neighbors.
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Help Oneself
Make good thy standing place, and move the world.
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Goodness Move Place Stand World
Great men stamp their mind upon their age and nation.
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Age Greatness Man Mindset Nation
Obedience, submission, discipline, courage–these are among the characteristics which make a man.
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Courage Discipline Man Obedience Submission
There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.
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Act Consequence Training
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.
SAMUEL SMILES

Butterfly Color Learning Service Study
The healthy spirit of self-help created among working people would, more than any other measure, serve to raise them as a class; and this, not by pulling down others, but by levelling them up to a higher and still advancing standard of religion, intelligence, and virtue.
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Creation Health Intelligence People Religion Spirit Virtue Work
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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Discipline Family Home Life Training Women
The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
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Difficult Greatness Man Service
Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them.
SAMUEL SMILES

Creation Enough Finding Man Opportunity Way

Enthusiasm, the sustaining power of all great action.

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Enthusiasm, the sustaining power of all great action.

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