No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
SAMUEL SMILESNo 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.
More Samuel Smiles Quotes
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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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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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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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Riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to action; and in many cases they are quite as much a misfortune as a blessing.
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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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Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in after life the images first presented to it.
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Those who have most to do, and are willing to work, will find the most time.
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Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.
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Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow.
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Life is of little value unless it be consecrated by duty.
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He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.
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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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He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour.
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Any number of depraved units cannot form a great nation.
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Character is itself a fortune.
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