The Romans rightly employed the same word (virtus) to designate courage, which is, in a physical sense, what the other is in… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
It is energy - the central element of which is will - that produces the miracle that is enthusiasm in all ages.… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Imitation is for the most part so unconscious that its effects are almost unheeded, but its influence is not the less permanent… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Home is the first and most important school of character. It is there that every human being receives his best moral training,… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
So much does the moral health depend upon the moral atmosphere that is breathed, and so great is the influence daily exercised… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve. — 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 constitutes the… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Those who are the most persistent, and work in the true spirit, will invariably be the most successful. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
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 Image
This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image