230 Quotes by Samuel Smiles

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

A place for everything and everything in its place.

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.

Where men or nations have broken down, it will almost invariably be found that neglect of little things was the rock on which they split.

Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in afterlife the images first presented to it. The first thing continues forever with the child. The first joy, the first sorrow, the first success, the first failure, the first achievement, the first misadventure paint the foreground of his life.

Misfortune is next door to stupidity, and it will often be found that men who are constantly lamenting their luck, are in some way or other reaping the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement, improvidence, or want of application.

We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do.

This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of a civilised society. Of iron.

Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience.