Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.
Samuel SmilesRead
It is not ease, but effort-not facility, but difficulty, makes men. There is, perhaps, no station in life in which difficulties have not to be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success is achieved through overcoming difficulties rather than through ease and simple solutions.
This quote emphasizes that true success comes from hard work and the ability to confront and overcome challenges. It suggests that difficulties are inherent in any pursuit of achievement, and that it is through these struggles that individuals are shaped and defined, leading to personal growth and accomplishment.
Themes
SuccessEffortDifficultyOvercomeAchievement
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to inspire employees facing challenges at work.
More from Samuel Smiles
All quotes βHope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.
Samuel SmilesRead
The career of a great man remains an enduring monument of human energy. The man dies and disappears, but his thoughts and acts survive and leave an indelible stamp upon his race.
Samuel SmilesRead
Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.
Samuel SmilesRead
An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.
Samuel SmilesRead
If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower.
Samuel SmilesRead
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Most people search high and wide for the key to success. If they only knew, the key to their dreams lies within.
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So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last.
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It takes sacrifice as well as talent.
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