Quotes from 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.

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

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

Knowledge conquered by labor becomes a possession -a property entirely our own.

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

It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit of life.

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

He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.

Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in after life the images first presented to it.

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.

The best-regulated home is always that in which the discipline is the most perfect, and yet where it is the least felt. Moral discipline acts with the force of a law of nature.

Mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an individual reform.

Enthusiasm..the sustaining power of all great action

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.

Character is property. It is the noblest of possessions.

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

Progress however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.

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.

The tiniest bits of opinion sown in the minds of children in private life afterwards issue forth to the world, and become its public opinion; for nations are gathered out of nurseries.

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

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

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

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.

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us. ...Hope sweetens the memory of experiences well loved. It tempers our troubles to our growth and our strength. It befriends us in the dark hours, excites us in bright ones. It lends promise to the future and purpose to the past. It turns discouragement to determination. Samuel Smiles