Samuel Smiles Quotes

114 Sourced Quotes

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

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

Samuel Smiles
Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book.

Samuel Smiles
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.

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
The influence of woman is the same everywhere. Her condition influences the morals, manners, and character of the people of all countries. Where she is debased, society is debased; where she is morally pure and enlightened, society will be proportionately elevated.

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

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

Samuel Smiles
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.

Samuel Smiles
The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him.

Samuel Smiles
The healthy spirit of self-help created among working people would, more than any other measure, serve to raise them as a class; and this, not by pulling down others, but by levelling them up to a higher and still advancing standard of religion, intelligence, and virtue.

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
Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so blind as men are. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators.

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

Samuel Smiles
It is natural to admire and revere really great men. They hallow the nation to which they belong, and lift up not only all who live in their time, but those who live after them. Their great example becomes the common heritage of their race; and their great deeds and great thoughts are the most glorious legacies of mankind.

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
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
If character be irrecoverably lost, then indeed there will be nothing left worth saving.

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

Samuel Smiles
The great high-road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast, well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will invariably be the most successful; success treads on the heels of every right effort.

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 noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.

Samuel Smiles