Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.
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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No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
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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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The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him.
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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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It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.
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Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness.
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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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Woman is the heart of humanity, its grace, ornament, and solace.
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Commit a child to the care of a worthless, ignorant woman, and no culture in after-life will remedy the evil you have done.
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Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.
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The work of many of the greatest men, inspired by duty, has been done amidst suffering and trial and difficulty. They have struggled against the tide, and reached the shore exhausted.
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Good sense, disciplined by experience and inspired by goodness, issues in practical wisdom.
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The tiniest bits of opinion sown in the minds of children in private life afterwards issue forth to the world, and become its public opinion; for nations are gathered out of nurseries.
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Energy enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgery and dry details and caries him onward and upward to every station in life.
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Riches do not constitute any claim to distinction. It is only the vulgar who admire riches as riches.
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Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.
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Great men are always exceptional men; and greatness itself is but comparative. Indeed, the range of most men in life is so limited that very few have the opportunity of being great.
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Example teaches better than precept. It is the best modeler of the character of men and women. To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind him.
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Those who aren’t making mistakes probably aren’t making anything.
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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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We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
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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.
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The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
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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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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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The great high-road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast welldoing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful.
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