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.
SAMUEL SMILESOne might almost fear,” writes a thoughtful woman, “seeing how the women of to-day are lightly stirred up to run after some new fashion or faith, that heaven is not so near to them as it was to their mothers and grandmothers.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit of life.
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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.
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Those who aren’t making mistakes probably aren’t making anything.
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The women of the poorer classes make sacrifices, and run risks, and bear privations, and exercise patience and kindness to a degree that the world never knows of, and would scarcely believe even if it did know.
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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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For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.
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Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in after life the images first presented to it.
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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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Men whose acts are at variance with their words command no respect, and what they say has but little weight.
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There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.
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Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book.
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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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Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.
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Obedience, submission, discipline, courage–these are among the characteristics which make a man.
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The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.
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