Make good thy standing place, and move the world.
SAMUEL SMILESNo laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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The cheapest of all things is kindness, its exercise requiring the least possible trouble and self-sacrifice. Win hearts, said Burleigh to Queen Elizabeth, and you have all men’s hearts and purses.
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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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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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Life is of little value unless it be consecrated by duty.
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The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.
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Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.
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To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind.
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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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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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This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.
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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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There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is difficult to be mistaken.
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Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness.
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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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Cheerfulness is also an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart.
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Character is undergoing constant change, for better or for worse–either being elevated on the one hand, or degraded on the other.
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Hope… is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.
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Character is itself a fortune.
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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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The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
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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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Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.
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Alexander the Great valued learning so highly, that he used to say he was more indebted to Aristotle for giving him knowledge than to his father Philip for life.
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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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Opportunities fall in the way of every man who is resolved to take advantage of them.
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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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