"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."

Smiles, Samuel on enthusiasm   

"We learn from failure much more than from success; we often discover what we will do by finding our what we will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery."

Smiles, Samuel on failure
5 fans of this quote   

"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."

Smiles, Samuel on failure   

"Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles."

Smiles, Samuel on hope
44 fans of this quote   

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

Smiles, Samuel on knowledge   

"Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable."

Smiles, Samuel on labor   

"Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it."

Smiles, Samuel on life   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Where there is a will there is a way. is an old true saying. He who resolves upon doing a thing, by that very resolution often scales the barriers to it, and secures its achievement. To think we are able, is almost to be so -- to determine upon attainment is frequently attainment itself."

Smiles, Samuel on achievement
6 fans of this quote   

"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."

Smiles, Samuel on mistakes
4 fans of this quote   

"He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery."

Smiles, Samuel on mistakes
4 fans of this quote   

"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."

Smiles, Samuel on neglect   

"It is not ease but effort, not facility but difficult, that makes man. There is perhaps no station in life in which difficulties do not have to be encountered and overcome before any decided means of success can be achieved."

Smiles, Samuel on obstacles   

"Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them."

Smiles, Samuel on opportunity   

"The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear."

Smiles, Samuel on peace   

"Progress however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step."

Smiles, Samuel on perseverance   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"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."

Smiles, Samuel on responsibility   

"Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever."

Smiles, Samuel on time
3 fans of this quote   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up."

Smiles, Samuel on vision   

"Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry."

Smiles, Samuel on wisdom   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom."

Smiles, Samuel on wisdom   

"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."

Smiles, Samuel on wisdom   

"The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted."

Smiles, Samuel on action
4 fans of this quote   

"The duty of helping one's self in the highest sense involves the helping of one's neighbors."

Smiles, Samuel on cooperation
3 fans of this quote   

"The moon is nothing but a circumambulating aphrodisiac divinely subsidized to provoke the world into a rising birth-rate."

Fry, Christopher on moon   

"Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement... says heaven and earth in one word... speaks of himself and his predicament as though for the first time. It has the virtue of being able to say twice as much as prose in half the time, and the drawback, if you do not give it your full attention, of seeming to say half as much in twice the time."

Fry, Christopher on poetry and poets   

"Comedy is an escape, not from truth but from despair; a narrow escape into faith."

Fry, Christopher on comedy and comedians
5 fans of this quote   

"Winners are those people who make a habit of doing the things losers are uncomfortable doing."

Foreman, Ed on fear
6 fans of this quote   

"True greatness consists in being great in little things."

Simmons, Charles on excellence
5 fans of this quote   

"Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty."

Simmons, Charles on accuracy
6 fans of this quote   

"Much of the wisdom of one age, is the folly of the next."

Simmons, Charles on improvement   

"Integrity is the first step to true greatness. Men love to praise, but are slow to practice it. To maintain it in high places costs self-denial; in all places it is liable to opposition, but its end is glorious, and the universe will yet do it homage."

Simmons, Charles on integrity
4 fans of this quote   

"Promptitude is not only a duty, but is also a part of good manners; it is favorable to fortune, reputation, influence, and usefulness; a little attention and energy will form the habit, so as to make it easy and delightful."

Simmons, Charles on punctuality   

"Both mind and heart when given up to reveries and dreaminess, have a thousand avenues open for the entrance of evil."

Simmons, Charles on reverie   

"No man has a right to do what he pleases, except when he pleases to do right."

Simmons, Charles on right and rightness   

"Bigotry and intolerance, silenced by argument, endeavors to silence by persecution, in old days by fire and sword, in modern days by the tongue."

Simmons, Charles on speech   

"Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes."

Cervantes, Miguel De on diligence   

"No padlocks, bolts, or bars can secure a maiden better than her own reserve."

Cervantes, Miguel De on discipline   

"There is no greater folly in the world than for a man to despair."

Cervantes, Miguel De on doubt   

"There's no taking trout with dry breeches."

Cervantes, Miguel De on effort   

"Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within."

Cervantes, Miguel De on enemies
10 fans of this quote