Samuel Smiles Famous Quotes
"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."
"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."
Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.
"Hope...is the companion of power, and the mother of success for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles."
"The experience to be gathered from books, Though often valuable, is but of the nature of learning Whereas the experience gained from actual life, Is of the nature of wisdom And a small store of the latter Is worth vastly more than a stock of the former."
An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.
"It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest better lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune..."
"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."
Enthusiasm...the sustaining power of all great action.
"Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only."
Samuel Smiles Quotations
The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth.
La Rochefoucauld
"An understanding heart is everything is a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child."
Carl Gustav Jung
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau
"A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever."
Martin Tupper
"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."
George Washington
"The bonds that unite another person to ourselves exist only in our mind. Memory as it grows fainter relaxes them, and notwithstanding the illusion by which we would fain be cheated and with which, out of love, friendship, politeness, deference, duty, we cheat other people, we exist alone. Man is the creature that cannot emerge from himself, that knows his fellows only in himself when he asserts the contrary, he is lying."
Marcel Proust
The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed.
Bennett Alfred Cerf
"Love is a medicine for the sickness of the world a prescription often given, too rarely taken."
Dr Karl Menninger
Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.
Dan Rather
Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.
W C Fields