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A fig-tree looking on a fig-tree becometh fruitful,” says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with children; their first great instructor is example.

Samuel Smiles

Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.
SAMUEL SMILES

Man Nation Purity Strength
With will one can do anything.
SAMUEL SMILES

Oneself Willing
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 shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.
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Focus Short Way
He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour.
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Enjoyment Labour Reward
Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.
SAMUEL SMILES

Character Goodness Noble Possession Property
Character is itself a fortune.
SAMUEL SMILES

Character Fortune One Liner
The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great though that evil be, but he who is in the thrall of his own moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice.
SAMUEL SMILES

Greatness Ignorance Moral Rule Selfish Slave Vice
Life is of little value unless it be consecrated by duty.
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Life Responsibility Value
This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.
SAMUEL SMILES

Civilization Manufacture Metal Soul
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.
SAMUEL SMILES

Action Goodness Greatness World
Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.
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Character Control Courage Essence Form Primary
Work is one of the best educators of practical character.
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Best Education Practice Work
The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
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Difficult Greatness Man Service
Any number of depraved units cannot form a great nation.
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Greatness Nation
The principal industrial excellence of the English people lay in their capacity of present exertion for a distant object.
SAMUEL SMILES

Distance Excellence Industrial Object Principle

A fig-tree looking on a fig-tree becometh fruitful,” says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with children; their first great instructor is example.

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A fig-tree looking on a fig-tree becometh fruitful,” says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with children; their first great instructor is example.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Samuel Smiles Quotes