James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
S. Smiles
Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.
Good example always brings forth good fruits.
Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.
Knowledge conquered by labour becomes a possession—a property entirely our own.
Liberty is quite as much a moral as a political growth, the result of free individual action, energy, and independence.
Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness.
The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.
We can finish nothing in this life, but we can make a beginning, and bequeath a noble example.
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. Home Tooke used to say of his studies in intellectual philosophy, that he had become all the better acquainted with the country through having had the good luck sometimes to lose his way.
“Win hearts,” said Burleigh to Queen Elizabeth, “and you have all men’s hearts and purses.”