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. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty. — 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
