Samuel Smiles > Quotes

“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.”
― Samuel Smiles, Happy Homes and the Hearts That Make Them

“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
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― 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

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

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

“The experience gathered from books, though often valuable,is but the nature of learning whereas the experience gained from actual life is of the nature of wisdom”
― Samuel Smiles

“Whilst writing all this, I have had in my mind a woman, whose strong and serious mind would not have failed to support me in these contentions. I lost her thirty years ago [I was a child then]--nevertheless, ever living in my memory, she follows me from age to age.

She suffered with me in my poverty, and was not allowed to share my better fortune. When young, I made her sad, and now I cannot console her. I know not even where her bones are: I was too poor then to buy earth to bury her!

And yet I owe her much. I feel deeply that I am the son of woman. Every instant, in my ideas and words [not to mention my features and gestures], I find again my mother in myself. It is my mother's blood which gives me the sympathy I feel for bygone ages, and the tender remembrance of all those who are now no more.

What return then could I, who am myself advancing towards old age, make her for the many things I owe her? One, for which she would have thanked me--this protest in favour of women and mothers.”
― Samuel Smiles, Character

“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, Self Help; With Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance

“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, Self-Help

“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

“It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.”
― Samuel Smiles

“We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do.”
― Samuel Smiles

“The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning whereas the experience gained form actual life is of the nature of wisdom. ”
― Samuel Smiles

“Truthfulness is at the foundation of all personal excellence.”
― Samuel Smiles, Character

“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, Character

“There is far too much croaking among young men.”
― Samuel Smiles, Duty: With Illustrations of Courage, Patience and Endurance

“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.”
― Samuel Smiles, Character

“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

“may be of comparatively little consequence how a man is governed from without, whilst everything depends upon how he governs himself from within.  The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great though that evil be, but he who is the thrall of his own moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice.  Nations who are thus enslaved at heart cannot be freed by any mere changes of masters”
― Samuel Smiles, Self Help; with illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance

“Self-respect is the noblest garment with which a man may clothe himself, the most elevating feeling with which the mind can be inspired.”
― Samuel Smiles

“The ignorant man passes through the world dead to all pleasures, save those of the senses.”
― Samuel Smiles, Self-Help

“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, Character

“Sopan santun banyak manfaatnya, tetapi tidak menuntut bayaran.”
― Samuel Smiles

“Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect. The former is more the product of brain-power, the latter of heart-power; and in the long run it is the heart that rules in life. Men of genius stand to society in the relation of its intellect, as men of character of its conscience; and while the former are admired, the latter are followed.”
― Samuel Smiles, Character

“At the same time, while Duty, for the most part, applies to the conduct of affairs in common life by the average of common men, it is also a sustaining power to men of the very highest standard of character. They may not have either money, or property, or learning, or power; and yet they may be strong in heart and rich in spirit—honest, truthful, dutiful. And whoever strives to do his duty faithfully is fulfilling the purpose for which he was created, and building up in himself the principles of a manly character. 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, Character

“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 perserveringly...Even if a man fail in his efforts, it will be a satisfaction to him to enjoy the consciousness of having done his best (p.205)”
― Samuel Smiles, Self Help

“An easy and luxurious existence does not train men to effort or encounter with difficulty; nor does it awaken that consciousness of power which is so necessary for energetic and effective action in life.”
― Samuel Smiles, Self Help

“The Government that is ahead of the people will inevitably be dragged down to their level, as the Government that is behind them will in the long run be dragged up (p.10).”
― Samuel Smiles, Self-Help

“A place for everything and everything in its place - via http://bit.ly/mUa1mm”
― Samuel Smiles, Mrs Isabella Beeton and Benjamin Franklin.

“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, Character