No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
Samuel SmilesNothing of real worth can be obtained without courageous working. Man owes his growth chiefly to the active striving of the will, that encounter with difficulty which he calls effort; and it is astonishing to find how often results apparently impracticable are then made possible.
Samuel SmilesExperience 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 SmilesObedience, submission, discipline, courage--these are among the characteristics which make a man.
Samuel Smiles