Samuel Smiles Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Samuel Smiles's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Author Samuel Smiles's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 172 quotes on this page collected since December 23, 1812! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.

    Samuel Smiles (2010). “Men of Invention and Industry”, p.87, BoD – Books on Demand
  • 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.

    Men  
    Samuel Smiles (1859). “Self-help; with illustrations of character and conduct”, p.152
  • Good sense, disciplined by experience and inspired by goodness, issues in practical wisdom.

    Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.8
  • It is not ease, but effort-not facility, but difficulty, makes men. There is, perhaps, no station in life in which difficulties have not to be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved.

    Life   Men  
    Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.348
  • Nothing of real worth can be obtained without courageous working. Man owes his growth chiefly to the active striving of the will, that encounter with difficulty which he calls effort; and it is astonishing to find how often results apparently impracticable are then made possible.

    Men  
  • Riches do not constitute any claim to distinction. It is only the vulgar who admire riches as riches.

    Samuel Smiles (1800). “Thrift”, p.314
  • Those who aren't making mistakes probably aren't making anything.

  • With will one can do anything.

    Samuel Smiles (1866). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Charakter, Conduct and Perseverance”, p.7
  • 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.

    Men  
    Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help, with Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.229
  • National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice.

    Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.16
  • The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.

    Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.17
  • 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 (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.19
  • If character be irrecoverably lost, then indeed there will be nothing left worth saving.

    Character   Saving   Lost  
    Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.30
  • All that is great in man comes through work; and civilization is its product.

    Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.88
  • 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.

    World  
  • The great leader attracts to himself men of kindred character, drawing them towards him as the loadstone draws iron.

    Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.17
  • It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to "scour the anchor.

    Men  
    Samuel Smiles (2014). “Self-Help”, p.199, Cambridge University Press
  • The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.

    Men  
    Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.350
  • The life of a good man is at the same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe reproof of vice.

    Men  
    Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.72
  • An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.

    Samuel Smiles (2014). “Self-Help”, p.153, Cambridge University Press
  • 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.

    Men  
    Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.269
  • Genius, without work, is certainly a dumb oracle, and it is unquestionably true that the men of the highest genius have invariably been found to be amongst the most plodding, hard-working, and intent men -- their chief characteristic apparently consisting simply in their power of laboring more intensely and effectively than others.

    Men  
    Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.319
  • Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.

    Samuel Smiles (1859). “Self-help; with illustrations of character and conduct”, p.322
  • So much does the moral health depend upon the moral atmosphere that is breathed, and so great is the influence daily exercised by parents over their children by living a life before their eyes, that perhaps the best system of parental instruction might be summed up in these two words: 'Improve thyself.'

    Samuel Smiles (1859). “Self-help; with illustrations of character and conduct”, p.295
  • 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.

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

    Heart  
    Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.237
  • Great men stamp their mind upon their age and nation.

    Men  
    Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.22
  • 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 (1872). “Character”, p.1
  • 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.

    Life   Success  
    Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help, with Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.312
  • Conscience is that peculiar faculty of the soul which may be called the religious instinct.

    Samuel Smiles (1881). “Duty, with Illustrations of Courage, Patience, and Endurance”
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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 172 quotes from the Author Samuel Smiles, starting from December 23, 1812! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!