Samuel Smiles

Great men are always exceptional men; and greatness itself is but comparative. Indeed, the range of most men in life is so limited that very few have the opportunity of being great.

Samuel Smiles

Home is the first and most important school of character. It is there that every human being receives his best moral training, or his worst; for it is there that he imbibes those principles of conduct which endure through manhood, and cease only with life.

Samuel Smiles

Honorable industry always travels the same road with enjoyment and duty, and progress is altogether impossible without it.

Samuel Smiles

I’m as happy a man as any in the world, for the whole world seems to smile upon me!

Samuel Smiles

If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower.

Samuel Smiles

Indeed, we can always better understand and appreciate a man’s real character by the manner in which he conducts himself towards those who are the most nearly related to him, and by his transaction of the seemingly commonplace details of daily duty, than by his public exhibition of himself as an author, an orator, or a statesman.

Samuel Smiles

It is energy – the central element of which is will – that produces the miracle that is enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is what is called force of character and the sustaining power of all great action.

Samuel Smiles

Liberty is the result of free individual action, energy and independence.

Samuel Smiles

Life is of little value unless it be consecrated by duty.

Samuel Smiles

Make good thy standing place, and move the world.

Samuel Smiles