Samuel Smiles Quotes

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.

It's not enough to have a dream, Unless you're willing to pursue it. It's not enough to know what's right, Unless you're strong enough to do it. It's not enough to learn the truth, Unless you also learn to live it. It's not enough to reach for love, Unless you care enough to give it 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.

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

The best school of discipline is home. Family life is God's own method of training the young, and homes are very much as women make them.

The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted.

Where there is a will there is a way.

Hope... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.

Politeness goes far, yet costs nothing.

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.

The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

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.

Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.

A great deal of what passes by the name of patriotism in these days consists of the merest bigotry and narrow-mindedness; exhibiting itself in national prejudice, national conceit, and national hatred. It does not show itself in deeds, but in boastings--in howlings, gesticulations, and shrieking helplessly for help--in flying flags and singing songs--and in perpetual grinding at the hurdy-gurdy of long-dead grievances and long-remedied wrongs. To be infested by such a patriotism as this is perhaps among the greatest curses that can befall any country.

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.

Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.

The very greatest things - great thoughts, discoveries, inventions - have usually been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length established with difficulty.

It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune. . . .

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.

Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.

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.

No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.

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.

Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.

Marriage like government is a series of compromises. One must give and take, repair and restrain, endure and be patient.