230 Quotes by Samuel Smiles

Obedience, submission, discipline, courage – these are among the characteristics which make a man.

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.

A woman’s best qualities do not reside in her intellect, but in her affections. She gives refreshment by her sympathies, rather than by her knowledge.

Time is of no account with great thoughts. They are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago.

Commonplace though it may appear, this doing of one’s duty embodies the highest ideal of life and character. There may be nothing heroic about it; but the common lot of men is not heroic.

The cheapest of all things is kindness, its exercise requiring the least possible trouble and self-sacrifice. Win hearts, said Burleigh to Queen Elizabeth, and you have all men’s hearts and purses.

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national vigour and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.

Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.

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.