Samuel Smiles

Example teaches better than precept. It is the best modeller of the characters of men and women. To live well is the best preacher. To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind him.

Samuel Smiles

Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.

Samuel Smiles

Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.

Samuel Smiles

Idleness of the mind is much worse than that of the body: wit, without employment, is a disease – the rust of the soul, a plague, a hell itself.

Samuel Smiles

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

Samuel Smiles

Knowledge conquered by labor becomes a possession – a property entirely our own.

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

Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.

Samuel Smiles

Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring him news of a legacy; labor turns out at six, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence.

Samuel Smiles

Man owes his growth chiefly to that active striving of the will, that encounter with difficulty, which we call effort; and it is astonishing to find how often results apparently impracticable are thus made possible.

Samuel Smiles