Samuel Smiles Quotes

Author Image

Samuel Smiles

Profession : Author

Birth : December 23, 1812

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.

Samuel Smiles

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

Samuel Smiles

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. 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.

Samuel Smiles

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.

Samuel Smiles

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

Samuel Smiles

The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.

Samuel Smiles

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

Samuel Smiles

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

Samuel Smiles

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.

Samuel Smiles

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

Samuel Smiles

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

Samuel Smiles

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.

Samuel Smiles

An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.

Samuel Smiles

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.

Samuel Smiles

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

Samuel Smiles

The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

Samuel Smiles

The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.

Samuel Smiles

A place for everything, and everything in its place.

Samuel Smiles

Progress, 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.

Samuel Smiles

Enthusiasm... the sustaining power of all great action.

Samuel Smiles