Those who have most to do, and are willing to work, will find the most time.
SAMUEL SMILESCecil’s dispatch of business was extraordinary, his maxim being, “The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.”
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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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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The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.
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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 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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Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in after life the images first presented to it.
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The great leader attracts to himself men of kindred character, drawing them towards him as the loadstone draws iron.
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Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.
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Conscience is that peculiar faculty of the soul which may be called the religious instinct.
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Character is itself a fortune.
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No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober. Such reforms can only be effected by means of individual action, economy and self-denial; by better habits, rather than by greater rights.
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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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Any number of depraved units cannot form a great nation.
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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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Self-control is only courage under another form.
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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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Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.
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Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.
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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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To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind.
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The duty of helping one’s self in the highest sense involves the helping of one’s neighbors.
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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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There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.
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The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted.
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Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow.
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No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
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Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.
SAMUEL SMILES