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.
SAMUEL SMILESLuck whines; labor whistles.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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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.
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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.
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Character is itself a fortune.
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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.
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There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.
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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.
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When typhus or cholera breaks out, they tell us that Nobody is to blame. That terrible Nobody! How much he has to answer for. More mischief is done by Nobody than by all the world besides.
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The great high-road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast, well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful; success treads on the heels of every right effort.
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Men cannot be raised in masses as the mountains were in he early geological states of the world. They must be dealt with as units; for it is only by the elevation of individuals that the elevation of the masses can be effectively secured.
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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.
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Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.
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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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Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.
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The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.
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The most influential of all the virtues are those which are the most in request for daily use. They wear the best, and last the longest.
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Progress however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.
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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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All life is a struggle…. Under competition the lazy man is put under the necessity of exerting himself; and if he will not exert himself, he must fall behind. If he do not work, neither shall he eat.
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Make good thy standing place, and move the world.
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The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.
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Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.
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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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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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Work is one of the best educators of practical character.
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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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Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh to -day as when they first passed through their authors’ minds ages ago.
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