Samuel Smiles Quotes & Sayings

Conscience is that peculiar faculty of the soul which may be called the religious instinct. — Samuel Smiles

The great lesson of biography is to show what man can be and do at his best. A noble life put fairly on record acts like an inspiration to others. — Samuel Smiles

A fig-tree looking on a fig-tree becometh fruitful, says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with children; their first great instructor is example. — Samuel Smiles

Nothing is more common than energy in money-making, quite independent of any higher object than its accumulation. A man who devotes himself to this pursuit, body and soul, can scarcely fail to become rich. Very little brains will do; spend less than you earn; add guinea to guinea; scrape and save; and the pile of gold will gradually rise. — Samuel Smiles

Cheerfulness is also an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart. — Samuel Smiles

Many are the lives of men unwritten, which have nevertheless as powerfully influenced civilization and progress as the more fortunate Great whose names are recorded in biography. Even the humblest person, who sets before his fellows an example of industry, sobriety, and upright honesty of purpose in life, has a present as well as a future influence upon the well-being of his country; for his life and character pass unconsciously into the lives of others, and propagate good example for all time to come. — Samuel Smiles

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

Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in afterlife the images first presented to it. The first thing continues forever with the child. The first joy, the first sorrow, the first success, the first failure, the first achievement, the first misadventure, paint the foreground of his life. — Samuel Smiles

The great and good do no die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens. — Samuel Smiles

Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles. — Samuel Smiles

No good thing is ever lost. Nothing dies, not even life which gives up one form only to resume another. No good action, no good example dies. It lives forever in our race. While the frame moulders and disappears, the deed leaves an indelible stamp, and molds the very thought and will of future generations. — Samuel Smiles

The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve. — Samuel Smiles

Commit a child to the care of a worthless, ignorant woman, and no culture in after-life will remedy the evil you have done. — Samuel Smiles

Those who aren't making mistakes probably aren't making anything. — Samuel Smiles

True politeness is consideration for the opinions of others. It has been said of dogmatism that it is only puppyism come to its full growth; and certainly the worst form this quality can assume is that of opinionativeness and arrogance. — Samuel Smiles

Character is itself a fortune. — Samuel Smiles

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever. — Samuel Smiles

To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind. — Samuel Smiles

The knowledge and experience which produce wisdom can only become a man's individual possession and property by his own free action; and it is as futile to expect these without laborious, painstaking effort, as it is to hope to gather a harvest where the seed has not been sown. — Samuel Smiles

The egotist is next door to a fanatic. — Samuel Smiles

The very greatest things - great thoughts, discoveries, inventions - have usually been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length established with difficulty. — Samuel Smiles

The highest culture is not obtained from the teacher when at school or college, so much as by our ever diligent self-education when we become men. — Samuel Smiles

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. — Samuel Smiles

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 — Samuel Smiles

Work is one of the best educators of practical character. — Samuel Smiles

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

Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect. The former is more the product of the brain, the latter of heart-power; and in the long run it is the heart that rules in life. — Samuel Smiles

Enthusiasm ... the sustaining power of all great action. — Samuel Smiles

Imitation is for the most part so unconscious that its effects are almost unheeded, but its influence is not the less permanent on that account. It is only when an impressive nature is placed in contact with an impressionable one that the alteration in the character becomes recognizable. Yet even the weakest natures exercise some influence upon those about them. The approximation of feeling, thought, and habit is constant, and the action of example unceasing. — Samuel Smiles

All life is a struggle ... Under competition the lazy man is put under the necessity of exerting himself; and if he will not exert himself, he must fall behind. If he do not work, neither shall he eat. — Samuel Smiles

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

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

Admiration of great men, living or dead, naturally evokes imitation of them in a greater or less degree. — Samuel Smiles

Energy enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgery and dry details and caries him onward and upward to every station in life. — Samuel Smiles

The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly. — Samuel Smiles

Marriage like government is a series of compromises. One must give and take, repair and restrain, endure and be patient. — Samuel Smiles

Sympathy is the golden key that unlocks the hearts of others. — Samuel Smiles

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. — Samuel Smiles

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

Persons with comparatively moderate powers will accomplish much, if they apply themselves wholly and indefatigably to one thing at a time. — Samuel Smiles

It is idleness that is the curse of man - not labour. Idleness eats the heart out of men as of nations, and consumes them as rust does iron. — Samuel Smiles

The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved. — Samuel Smiles

It will generally be found that men who are constantly lamenting their ill luck are only reaping the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement, and improvidence, or want of application. — Samuel Smiles

Character is property. It is the noblest of possessions. — Samuel Smiles

Character is undergoing constant change, for better or for worse
either being elevated on the one hand, or degraded on the other. — Samuel Smiles

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

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

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. — Samuel Smiles

Any number of depraved units cannot form a great nation. — Samuel Smiles

On the other hand, if surrounded by ignorance, coarseness, and selfishness, they will unconsciously assume the same character, and grow up to adult years rude, uncultivated, and all the more dangerous to society if placed amidst the manifold temptations of what is called civilised life. "Give your child to be educated by a slave," said an ancient Greek, "and instead of one slave, you will then have two." The child cannot help imitating what he sees. Everything is to him a model - of manner, of gesture, of speech, of habit, of character. "For the child," says Richter, "the most important era of life is that of childhood, when he begins to colour and mould himself by companionship with others. — Samuel Smiles

Self-control is only courage under another form. — Samuel Smiles

What we are accustomed to decry as great social evils, will, for the most part, be found to be only the out-growth of our own perverted life; and though we may endeavor to cut them down and extirpate them by means of law, they will only spring up again with fresh luxuriance in some other form, unless the conditions of human life and character are radically improved. — Samuel Smiles

Though an inheritance of acres may be bequeathed, an inheritance of knowledge and wisdom cannot. The wealthy man may pay others for doing his work for him; but it is impossible to get his thinking done for him by another, or to purchase any kind of self-culture. — Samuel Smiles

Necessity is always the first stimulus to industry, and those who conduct it with prudence, perseverance and energy will rarely fail. Viewed in this light, the necessity of labor is not a chastisement, but a blessing,
the very root and spring of all that we call progress in individuals and civilization in nations. — Samuel Smiles

Good sense, disciplined by experience and inspired by goodness, issues in practical wisdom. — Samuel Smiles

A great deal of what passes by the name of patriotism in these days consists of the merest bigotry and narrow-mindedness; exhibiting itself in national prejudice, national conceit, and national hatred. It does not show itself in deeds, but in boastings
in howlings, gesticulations, and shrieking helplessly for help
in flying flags and singing songs
and in perpetual grinding at the hurdy-gurdy of long-dead grievances and long-remedied wrongs. To be infested by such a patriotism as this is perhaps among the greatest curses that can befall any country. — Samuel Smiles

Riches and rank have no necessary connection with genuine gentlemanly qualities. The poor man with rich spirit is in all ways superior to the rich man with a poor spirit. To borrow St. Paul's words, the former is as "having nothing, yet possessing all things," while the other, though possessing all things has nothing. Only the poor in spirit are really poor. He who has lost all, but retains his courage, cheerfulness, hope, virtue, and self respect, is still rich. — Samuel Smiles

Manners are the ornament of action. — Samuel Smiles

Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it. — Samuel Smiles

The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted. — Samuel Smiles

The duty of helping one's self in the highest sense involves the helping of one's neighbors. — Samuel Smiles

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. — Samuel Smiles

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

A man may be accomplished in art, literature, and science, and yet, in honesty, virtue, truthfulness, and the spirit of duty, be entitled to take rank after many a poor and illiterate peasant. — Samuel Smiles

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

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

Woman, above all other educators, educates humanly. Man is the brain, but woman is the heart, of humanity. — Samuel Smiles

Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others. — Samuel Smiles

If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower. — Samuel Smiles

Idleness of the mind is much worse than that of the body: wit, without employment, is a disease - the rust of the soul, a plague, a hell itself. — Samuel Smiles

The best school of discipline is home. Family life is God's own method of training the young, and homes are very much as women make them. — Samuel Smiles

Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness. — Samuel Smiles

The career of a great man remains an enduring monument of human energy. The man dies and disappears, but his thoughts and acts survive and leave an indelible stamp upon his race. — Samuel Smiles

Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them. — Samuel Smiles

All experiences of life seems to prove that the impediments thrown in the way of the human advancement may for the most part be overcome by steady good conduct, honest zeal, activity, perseverance and above all, by a determined resolution to surmount. — Samuel Smiles

Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only. — Samuel Smiles

Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry. — Samuel Smiles

It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune ... — Samuel Smiles

The possession of a library, or the free use of it, no more constitutes learning, than the possession of wealth constitutes generosity. — Samuel Smiles

Diligence, above all, is the mother of good luck. — Samuel Smiles

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

Length of years is no proper test of length of life. A man's life is to be measured by what he does in it and what he feels in it. — Samuel Smiles

One might almost fear," writes a thoughtful woman, "seeing how the women of to-day are lightly stirred up to run after some new fashion or faith, that heaven is not so near to them as it was to their mothers and grandmothers. — Samuel Smiles

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

Energy of will may be defined to be the very central power of character in a man. — Samuel Smiles

The path of success in business is invariably the path of common-sense. Nothwithstanding all that is said about "lucky hits," the best kind of success in every man's life is not that which comes by accident. The only "good time coming" we are justified in hoping for is that which we are capable of making for ourselves. — Samuel Smiles

Men cannot be raised in masses as the mountains were in he early geological states of the world. They must be dealt with as units; for it is only by the elevation of individuals that the elevation of the masses can be effectively secured. — Samuel Smiles

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. — Samuel Smiles

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. — Samuel Smiles

He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour. — Samuel Smiles

Men whose acts are at variance with their words command no respect, and what they say has but little weight. — Samuel Smiles

It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit in life. Human knowledge is but an accumulation of small facts made by successive generations of men
the little bits of knowledge and experience carefully treasured up by them growing at length into a mighty pyramid. — Samuel Smiles

Politeness goes far, yet costs nothing. — Samuel Smiles

Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable. — Samuel Smiles

Indeed, we can always better understand and appreciate a man's real character by the manner in which he conducts himself towards those who are the most nearly related to him, and by his transaction of the seemingly commonplace details of daily duty, than by his public exhibition of himself as an author, an orator, or a statesman. — Samuel Smiles

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

Obedience, submission, discipline, courage
these are among the characteristics which make a man. — Samuel Smiles

Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up. — Samuel Smiles

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

Hope ... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles. — Samuel Smiles