Samuel Smiles Quotes - Page 6

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• Good sense, disciplined by experience and inspired by goodness, issues in practical wisdom.

  Samuel Smiles

  Issues, Common Sense, Inspired

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.8

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• Cecil's dispatch of business was extraordinary, his maxim being, "The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once."

  Samuel Smiles

  Business, Way, Maxims

  'Self-Help' (1859) ch. 9

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• Make good thy standing place, and move the world.

  Samuel Smiles

  Moving, World, Standing

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• The influence of woman is the same everywhere. Her condition influences the morals, manners, and character of the people of all countries. Where she is debased, society is debased; where she is morally pure and enlightened, society will be proportionately elevated.

  Samuel Smiles

  Country, Women, Character

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.59

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• It is not eminent talent that is required to ensure success in any pursuit, so much as purpose-not merely the power to achieve, but the will to labour energetically and perseveringly. Hence energy of will may be defined to be the very central power of character in a man-in a word, it is the Man himself.

  Samuel Smiles

  Spiritual, Character, Power

  Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.203

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• Riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to action; and in many cases they are quite as much a misfortune as a blessing.

  Samuel Smiles

  Blessing, Riches, Action

  Samuel Smiles (1866). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Charakter, Conduct and Perseverance”, p.311

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• The truest politeness comes of sincerity.

  Samuel Smiles

  Sincerity, Politeness, Truest

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.238

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• Example teaches better than precept. It is the best modeler of the character of men and women. To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind him.

  Samuel Smiles

  Character, Men, Example

  Samuel Smiles (1881). “Duty, with Illustrations of Courage, Patience, and Endurance”

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• Whatever is done for men takes away from the stimulus and necessity of doing things for themselves. The value of legislative as an agent in human advancement has been much over-estimated. No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident or the drunken sober.

  Samuel Smiles

  Men, Law, Done

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• Those who have most to do, and are willing to work, will find the most time.

  Samuel Smiles

  Work, Willing

  Samuel Smiles (1866). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Charakter, Conduct and Perseverance”, p.13

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• Stothard learned the art of combining colors by closely studying butterflies wings; he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas.

  Samuel Smiles

  Art, Butterfly, Doors

  Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.103

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• Honorable industry always travels the same road with enjoyment and duty, and progress is altogether impossible without it.

  Samuel Smiles

  Progress, Impossible, Duty

  Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help, with Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.36

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• Commonplace though it may appear, this doing of one's duty embodies the highest ideal of life and character. There may be nothing heroic about it; but the common lot of men is not heroic.

  Samuel Smiles

  Hero, Character, Men

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.2

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• The principal industrial excellence of the English people lay in their capacity of present exertion for a distant object.

  Samuel Smiles

  People, Excellence, Capacity

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• Life is of little value unless it be consecrated by duty.

  Samuel Smiles

  Littles, Life Is, Duty

  Samuel Smiles (1881). “Duty, with Illustrations of Courage, Patience, and Endurance”

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• Diligence, above all, is the mother of good luck.

  Samuel Smiles

  Mother, Good Luck, Luck

  Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.259

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• The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him.

  Samuel Smiles

  Inspiration, Men, Brave

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.17

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• Any number of depraved units cannot form a great nation.

  Samuel Smiles

  Numbers, Form, Units

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.30

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• Thus the brave and aspiring life of one man lights a flame in the minds of others of like faculties and impulse; and where there is equally vigorous effort, like distinction and success will almost surely follow. Thus the chain of example is carried down through time in an endless succession of links--admiration exciting imitation, and perpetuating the true aristocracy of genius.

  Samuel Smiles

  Men, Light, Flames

  Samuel Smiles (2009). “Self-Help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.528, The Floating Press

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• The egotist is next door to a fanatic.

  Samuel Smiles

  Doors, Next, Egotism

  Samuel Smiles (1871). “Character”, p.229

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• I see nothing quite conclusive in the art of temporal government, But violence, duplicity and frequent malversation. King rules or barons rule: The strong man strongly and the weak man by caprice. They have but one law, to seize the power and keep it.

  Samuel Smiles

  Art, Strong, Kings

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• The most influential of all the virtues are those which are the most in request for daily use. They wear the best, and last the longest.

  Samuel Smiles

  Use, Lasts, Influential

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.2

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• Sympathy is the golden key that unlocks the hearts of others.

  Samuel Smiles

  Sympathy, Condolences, Heart

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.237

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• Alexander the Great valued learning so highly, that he used to say he was more indebted to Aristotle for giving him knowledge than to his father Philip for life.

  Samuel Smiles

  Father, Giving, Mentor

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• He who recognizes no higher logic than that of the shilling may become a very rich man, and yet remain all the while an exceedingly poor creature; for riches are no proof whatever of moral worth, and their glitter often serves only to draw attention to the worthlessness of their possessor, as the glow-worm's light reveals the grub.

  Samuel Smiles

  Men, Light, Attention

  Samuel Smiles (1871). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Characters, Conduct, and Perseverance”, p.341

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