The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Liberty is the result of free individual action,energy and independence. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Experience serves to prove that the worth and strength of a state depend far less upon the form of its institutions than… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The government of a nation itself is usually found to be but the reflux of the individuals composing it. The government that… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The knowledge and experience which produce wisdom can only become a man's individual possession and property by his own free action; and… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Men cannot be raised in masses as the mountains were in he early geological states of the world. They must be dealt… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Necessity is always the first stimulus to industry, and those who conduct it with prudence, perseverance and energy will rarely fail. Viewed… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober. Such reforms can only be effected… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Biographies of great, but especially of good men are most instructive and useful as helps, guides, and incentives to others. Some of the best… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
The women of the poorer classes make sacrifices, and run risks, and bear privations, and exercise patience and kindness to a degree that the… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
Self-respect is the noblest garment with which a man can clothe himself, the most elevating feeling with which the mind can be inspired. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but of the nature of learning; whereas, the experience gained from actual life is of… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
Those who are the most persistent, and work in the true spirit, will invariably be the most successful. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
The iron rail proved a magicians' road. It virtually reduced England to a sixth of its size. It brought the country nearer to the… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
The life of a good man is at the same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe reproof of vice. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
It is a grand old name, that of gentleman, and has been recognized as a rank and power in all stages of society. To… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
“Many are the lives of men unwritten, which have nevertheless as powerfully influenced civilization and progress as the more fortunate Great whose names are… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share
