1
Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.Samuel Smiles
2
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
3
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
4
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
5
It is energy the central element of which is will that produces the miracles of enthusiasm in all ages. It is the mainspring of what is called force of character and the sustaining power of all great action.Samuel Smiles
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Politeness goes far yet costs nothing.Samuel Smiles
7
They who are the most persistent and work in the true spirit will invariably be the most successful.Samuel Smiles
8
Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.Samuel Smiles
9
Hope... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.Samuel Smiles
10
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
11
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.Samuel Smiles
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Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.Samuel Smiles
13
The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.Samuel Smiles
14
Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.Samuel Smiles
15
Enthusiasm... the sustaining power of all great action.Samuel Smiles
16
The very greatest things - great thoughts, discoveries, inventions - have usually been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length established with difficulty.Samuel Smiles
17
Admiration of great men, living or dead, naturally evokes imitation of them in a greater or less degree.Samuel Smiles
18
Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.Samuel Smiles
19
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
20
Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.Samuel Smiles
21
I'm as happy a man as any in the world, for the whole world seems to smile upon me!Samuel Smiles