All life is a struggle… Under competition the lazy man is put under the necessity of exerting himself; and if he will… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The tiniest bits of opinion sown in the minds of children in private life afterwards issue forth to the world, and become… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
“The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning whereas the experience gained form actual life is… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Energy enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgery and dry details and caries him onward and upward to every… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Commonplace though it may appear, this doing of one's duty embodies the highest ideal of life and character. There may be nothing… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The life of a good man is at the same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe reproof… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Progress however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so blind as men are. Those who look into practical… — 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… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Thus the brave and aspiring life of one man lights a flame in the minds of others of like faculties and impulse;… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
No good thing is ever lost. Nothing dies, not even life which gives up one form only to resume another. No good… — 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… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
What we are accustomed to decry as great social evils, will, for the most part, be found to be only the out-growth… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The crown and glory of life is character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Length of years is no proper test of length of life. A man's life is to be measured by what he does… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
It is not ease, but effort-not facility, but difficulty, makes men. There is, perhaps, no station in life in which difficulties have… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Hope... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The best school of discipline is home. Family life is God's own method of training the young, and homes are very much… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
The great lesson of biography is to show what man can be and do at his best. A noble life put fairly… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go,… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
All experiences of life seems to prove that the impediments thrown in the way of the human advancement may for the most… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in after life the images first presented to it. — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Simple honesty of purpose in a man goes a long way in life, if founded on a just estimate of himself and… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Great men are always exceptional men; and greatness itself is but comparative. Indeed, the range of most men in life is so… — Samuel Smiles Copy Share Image
Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect. The former is more the product of the brain, the latter of heart-power;… — 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
For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making, and rendering success… — 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
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
