A biography for Samuel Smileshasn’t been written yet.
“A place for everything, and everything in its place.”
“Work is one of the best educators of practical character.”
“Simple honesty of purpose in a man goes a long way in life, if founded on a just estimate of himself and a steady obedience to the rule he knows and feels to be right.”
“The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear.”
“Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.”
“Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Hope... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.”
“The work of many of the greatest men, inspired by duty, has been done amidst suffering and trial and difficulty. They have struggled against the tide, and reached the shore exhausted.”
“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.”
“The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.”
“He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour.”
“Sow a thought, and you reap an act;Sow an act, and you reap a habit;Sow a habit, and you reap a character;Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.”
“The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted.”
“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.”
“The very greatest things - great thoughts, discoveries, inventions - have usually been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length established with difficulty.”
“Length of years is no proper test of length of life. A man's life is to be measured by what he does in it and what he feels in it.”
“I'm as happy a man as any in the world, for the whole world seems to smile upon me!”
“Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.”