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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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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Good sense, disciplined by experience and inspired by goodness, issues in practical wisdom.
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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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Nothing of real worth can be obtained without courageous working. Man owes his growth chiefly to the active striving of the will, that encounter with difficulty which he calls effort; and it is astonishing to find how often results apparently impracticable are then made possible.
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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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Those who aren't making mistakes probably aren't making anything.
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With will one can do anything.
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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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National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice.
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The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.
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Many are the lives of men unwritten, which have nevertheless as powerfully influenced civilization and progress as the more fortunate Great whose names are recorded in biography. Even the humblest person, who sets before his fellows an example of industry, sobriety, and upright honesty of purpose in life, has a present as well as a future influence upon the well-being of his country; for his life and character pass unconsciously into the lives of others, and propagate good example for all time to come.
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If character be irrecoverably lost, then indeed there will be nothing left worth saving.
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All that is great in man comes through work; and civilization is its product.
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The great and good do no die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens.
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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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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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The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
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The life of a good man is at the same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe reproof of vice.
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An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.
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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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Genius, without work, is certainly a dumb oracle, and it is unquestionably true that the men of the highest genius have invariably been found to be amongst the most plodding, hard-working, and intent men -- their chief characteristic apparently consisting simply in their power of laboring more intensely and effectively than others.
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Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.
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So much does the moral health depend upon the moral atmosphere that is breathed, and so great is the influence daily exercised by parents over their children by living a life before their eyes, that perhaps the best system of parental instruction might be summed up in these two words: 'Improve thyself.'
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It is a grand old name, that of gentleman, and has been recognized as a rank and power in all stages of society. To possess this character is a dignity of itself, commanding the instinctive homage of every generous mind, and those who will not bow to titular rank will yet do homage to the gentleman. His qualities depend not upon fashion or manners, but upon moral worth; not on personal possessions, but on personal qualities.
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Sympathy is the golden key that unlocks the hearts of others.
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Great men stamp their mind upon their age and nation.
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Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect. The former is more the product of the brain, the latter of heart-power; and in the long run it is the heart that rules in life.
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The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.
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Conscience is that peculiar faculty of the soul which may be called the religious instinct.
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