It is not ease, but effort-not facility, but difficulty, makes men. There is, perhaps, no station in life in which difficulties have not to be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved.
SAMUEL SMILESMen whose acts are at variance with their words command no respect, and what they say has but little weight.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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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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No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
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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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The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.
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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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Opportunities fall in the way of every man who is resolved to take advantage of them.
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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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Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.
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Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.
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Obedience, submission, discipline, courage–these are among the characteristics which make a man.
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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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Experience serves to prove that the worth and strength of a state depend far less upon the form of its institutions than upon the character of its men; for the nation is only the aggregate of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a question of personal, improvement.
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If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower.
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Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.
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The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.
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