Quote

Experience serves to prove that the worth and strength of a state depend far less upon the form of its institutions than upon the character of its men for the nation is only the aggregate of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a question of personal, improvement.

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
Character
Question
Civilization
States
Nations
Prove
Men
State
Depends
Upon
Nation
Aggregate
Less
Worth
Serves
Individual
Conditions
Depend
Experience
Strength
Improvement
Form
Personal
Institutions

More quotes by Samuel Smiles

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The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great though that evil be, but he who is in the thrall of his own moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice.
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If character be irrecoverably lost, then indeed there will be nothing left worth saving.
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Energy enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgery and dry details and caries him onward and upward to every station in life.
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The egotist is next door to a fanatic.
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Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book.
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Politeness goes far, yet costs nothing.
Samuel Smiles
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For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.
Samuel Smiles
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Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.
Samuel Smiles
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Knowledge conquered by labor becomes a possession -a property entirely our own.
Samuel Smiles
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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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Make good thy standing place, and move the world.
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Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.
Samuel Smiles
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Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring him news of a legacy labor turns out at six, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence.
Samuel Smiles
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Stothard learned the art of combining colors by closely studying butterflies wings he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas.
Samuel Smiles
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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.
Samuel Smiles
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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But all play and no work makes him something worse.
Samuel Smiles
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Work is one of the best educators of practical character.
Samuel Smiles
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The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.
Samuel Smiles
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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.
Samuel Smiles
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Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.
Samuel Smiles