Quote

Riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to action and in many cases they are quite as much a misfortune as a blessing.

Samuel Smiles

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Samuel Smiles
Age: 91 †
Born: 1812
Born: December 23
Died: 1904
Died: April 16
Author
Biographer
Journalist
Philosopher
Writer
Haddington
East Lothian
Wealth
Impediment
Quite
Impediments
Action
Misfortune
Many
Stimulus
Much
Misfortunes
Riches
Blessing
Cases
Oftener

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Work is one of the best educators of practical character.
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I see nothing quite conclusive in the art of temporal government, But violence, duplicity and frequent malversation. King rules or barons rule: The strong man strongly and the weak man by caprice. They have but one law, to seize the power and keep it.
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Marriage like government is a series of compromises. One must give and take, repair and restrain, endure and be patient.
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Knowledge conquered by labor becomes a possession -a property entirely our own.
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Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect. The former is more the product of the brain, the latter of heart-power and in the long run it is the heart that rules in life.
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One might almost fear, writes a thoughtful woman, seeing how the women of to-day are lightly stirred up to run after some new fashion or faith, that heaven is not so near to them as it was to their mothers and grandmothers.
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For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.
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Make good thy standing place, and move the world.
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Self-respect is the noblest garment with which a man can clothe himself, the most elevating feeling with which the mind can be inspired.
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Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.
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The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him.
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The egotist is next door to a fanatic.
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Courage is by no means incompatible with tenderness. On the contrary, gentleness and tenderness have been found to characterize the men, no less than the women, who have done the most courageous deeds.
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So much does the moral health depend upon the moral atmosphere that is breathed, and so great is the influence daily exercised by parents over their children by living a life before their eyes, that perhaps the best system of parental instruction might be summed up in these two words: 'Improve thyself.'
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Enthusiasm..the sustaining power of all great action
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A fig-tree looking on a fig-tree becometh fruitful, says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with children their first great instructor is example.
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The life of a good man is at the same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe reproof of vice.
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There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is difficult to be mistaken.
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Energy of will may be defined to be the very central power of character in a man.
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No good thing is ever lost. Nothing dies, not even life which gives up one form only to resume another. No good action, no good example dies. It lives forever in our race. While the frame moulders and disappears, the deed leaves an indelible stamp, and molds the very thought and will of future generations.
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