Samuel Smiles Quotes

Samuel Smiles shares thoughtful, motivational reflections on habit, failure, and destiny.

30 quotes

1. England was nothing, compared to continental nations until she had become commercial:until about the middle of the last century, when a number of ingenious and inventive men, without apparent relation to each other, arose in various parts of the kingdom, succeeded in giving an immense impulse to all the branches of the national industry; the result of which has been a harvest of wealth and prosperity, perhaps without a parallel in the history of the world.

2. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

3. Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.

4. No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.

5. 'Heaven helps those who help themselves' is a well tired maxim, embodying in a small compass the results of a vast human experience. 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 true source of national vigour and strength.

6. We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

7. We often discover what WILL do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

8. A man who devotes himself to this pursuit, body and soul, can scarcely fail to become rich. Very little brains will do:

9. Every now and then they were awarded prizes - Self-Help by Smiles, and other books suitable for perusal by persons suffering from almost complete obliteration of the mental faculties.

10. It's a brutal book; it ought to be burnt by the common hangman. Smiles was the arch-Philistine, and his book the apotheosis of respectability, gigmanity, and selfish grab.

11. Biographies of great, but especially of good men are most instructive and useful as helps, guides, and incentives to others. Some of the best are almost equivalent to gospels,--teaching high living ,high thinking, and energetic action, for their own and, the world's good.

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

13. The women of the poorer classes make sacrifices, and run risks, and bear privations, and exercise patience and kindness to a degree that the world never knows of, and would scarcely believe even if it did know.

14. Self-respect is the noblest garment with which a man can clothe himself, the most elevating feeling with which the mind can be inspired.

15. The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but of the nature of learning; whereas, the experience gained from actual life is of the nature of wisdom; and a small store of the latter is worth vastly more than any stock of the former.

16. The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.

17. The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear.

18. Those who are the most persistent, and work in the true spirit, will invariably be the most successful.

19. The iron rail proved a magicians' road. It virtually reduced England to a sixth of its size. It brought the country nearer to the town and the town to the country… It energized punctuality, discipline, and attention; and proved a moral teacher by the influence of example.

20. This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.

21. Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.

22. The life of a good man is at the same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe reproof of vice.

23. It is a grand old name, that of gentleman, and has been recognized as a rank and power in all stages of society. To possess this character is a dignity of itself, commanding the instinctive homage of every generous mind, and those who will not bow to titular rank will yet do homage to the gentleman. His qualities depend not upon fashion or manners, but upon moral worth; not on personal possessions, but on personal qualities.

24. Labour may be a burden and a chastisement, but it is also an honour and a glory. Without it, nothing can be accomplished.

25. There are many persons of whom it may be said that they have no other possession in the world but their character, and yet they stand as firmly upon it as any crowned king.

26. With will one can do anything.

27. If character be irrecoverably lost, then indeed there will be nothing left worth saving.

28. 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.

29. Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so blind as men are. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators.

30. Courage is by no means incompatible with tenderness. On the contrary, gentleness and tenderness have been found to characterize the men, no less than the women, who have done the most courageous deeds.