Quotes from 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.

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.

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

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.

The work of many of the greatest men, inspired by duty, has been done amidst suffering and trial and difficulty. They have struggled against the tide, and reached the shore exhausted.

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

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.

Great men are always exceptional men; and greatness itself is but comparative. Indeed, the range of most men in life is so limited that very few have the opportunity of being great.

For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.

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

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.

Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.

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

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

A woman's best qualities do not reside in her intellect, but in her affections. She gives refreshment by her sympathies, rather than by her knowledge.

Simple honesty of purpose in a man goes a long way in life, if founded on a just estimate of himself and a steady obedience to the rule he knows and feels to be right.

The great high-road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast welldoing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful.

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

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But all play and no work makes him something worse.

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

All that is great in man comes through work; and civilization is its product.

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

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

Work is one of the best educators of practical character.