Browse 16 quotations connecting Samuel Smiles with Character, with meanings, source notes and related themes.
Each quotation is included because its central idea connects with this theme, not simply because one matching word appears in the sentence.
Sources represented here include Character, Self-Help, Thrift. Keeping the work and source note beside each quotation makes differences in setting, speaker and emphasis easier to see.
Sources represented here include Character, Self-Help, Thrift.
“Character is property.”
A good name and dependable conduct are described as forms of value that belong to a person even when material circumstances change.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. The brief statement introduces Smiles’s comparison of character with property: an enduring possession expressed through goodwill, esteem and an honourably earned reputation.
“Character is one of the greatest motive powers in the world.”
Character is treated as an active force because reliable conduct shapes trust, influence, and the quality of choices made under ordinary pressure.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles opens the chapter by presenting character as a major moral and social force, then distinguishes its influence from intellectual talent, wealth and position.
“Truthfulness is at the foundation of all personal excellence.”
Personal excellence is grounded in truthfulness because habits of distortion eventually weaken trust, judgment, and the consistency between principle and action.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles places the sentence in his discussion of veracity and reliableness, arguing that talent or genius cannot command durable confidence unless conduct can be trusted.
“There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.”
Small actions matter because repetition creates habits and consequences that can accumulate long after a single choice seemed insignificant.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. The sentence follows Smiles’s claim that character is formed through minute circumstances and daily discipline, emphasizing that even apparently trivial acts carry consequences.
“Not a day passes without its discipline, whether for good or for evil.”
Daily experience is always training something, so ordinary choices can reinforce either constructive habits or patterns that make later self-command harder.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles introduces the sentence while explaining that character is formed by many minute circumstances under partial individual control, so each day contributes discipline for good or ill.
“Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect.”
Talent may attract attention, but durable respect depends more heavily on conduct, reliability, and the moral quality people experience over time.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Near the opening, Smiles contrasts admiration for genius with the more durable respect secured by character, framing the latter as a power of conduct rather than intellect alone.
“A sensible polite person does not assume to be better or wiser or richer than his neighbour.”
Smiles connects humility with ordinary social behavior: modest conduct resists turning differences in knowledge, wealth, rank or achievement into claims of personal superiority over other people.
Source note: Character, Chapter IX, “Manner—Art,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles places the sentence in his discussion of politeness as respect for the personality and circumstances of others, then describes the well-mannered person as modest, unpretentious and more interested in doing than boasting.
“The most influential of all the virtues are those which are the most in request for daily use.”
Virtues become socially important when they guide routine dealings with other people rather than appearing only in exceptional or ceremonial situations.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. In the chapter’s discussion of duty in ordinary life, Smiles argues that the virtues most needed in everyday conduct exert the widest and most lasting influence.
“Every action, every thought, every feeling, contributes to the education of the temper, the habits, and understanding.”
Education continues through everyday conduct: repeated thoughts and actions train emotional responses, habits, and practical judgment even outside formal study.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. It immediately follows the discussion of small acts and daily discipline, with Smiles describing action, thought and feeling as continuously educating temper, habits and understanding.
“It is always the Man society wants.”
In context, Smiles argues that social and industrial progress still depends on capable people willing to lead, follow and work persistently.
Source note: Men of Invention and Industry, Chapter X, “Industry in Ireland: Through Connaught and Ulster to Belfast”; Project Gutenberg #725. Period capitalization and gendered wording are preserved as source text.
“For character is itself a fortune.”
Material success is secondary to a reputation and inner standard that can survive temporary loss; character is treated as durable capital.
Source note: Self-Help, Chapter IX, “Men of Business,” Project Gutenberg #935. The line appears in the chapter’s discussion of honesty in business: Smiles argues that even temporary material loss is preferable to sacrificing character, which he describes as a fortune in itself.
“Character is human nature in its best form.”
Character is presented as developed human nature: moral order embodied in repeated conduct rather than merely admired in theory.
Source note: Self-Help, Chapter XIII, “Character—The True Gentleman,” Project Gutenberg #935. Near the opening of the chapter, Smiles defines character as moral order embodied in the individual and describes people of character as the conscience and motive power of society.
“The education of character is very much a question of models.”
People absorb conduct from examples around them, so lived models can teach more powerfully than rules that are contradicted by behavior.
Source note: Self-Help, Chapter XII, “Example—Models,” Project Gutenberg #935. Smiles argues that character education depends heavily on models because people unconsciously mould themselves after the characters, manners, habits and opinions around them.
“Want of confidence is perhaps a greater obstacle to improvement than is generally imagined.”
Smiles argues that underestimating one’s ability can prevent effort before ability is ever tested; lack of confidence becomes harmful when it turns into hesitation and chronic non-attempt rather than realistic modesty.
Source note: Self-Help, Chapter XI, “Self-Culture—Facilities and Difficulties,” Project Gutenberg #935. In the discussion of decision and promptitude, Smiles argues that excessive guidance can weaken self-reliance and that lack of confidence can obstruct improvement by discouraging prompt action.
“requires earnest purpose, honest self-devotion, and hard work.”
Smiles argues that social reform requires committed people and sustained effort rather than money alone, joining honesty, purpose and work in one historical reform ethic.
Source note: Thrift, Chapter XIV, “Riches and Charity,” Project Gutenberg #14418. Smiles argues that money alone cannot reform conduct and says change from intemperance, improvidence and irreligion requires earnest purpose, self-devotion and hard work; that nineteenth-century reform context is preserved.
“Thrift is the basis of Self-Help, and the foundation of much that is excellent in Character.”
Thrift is presented as a habit of foresight that supports independence and creates room for more deliberate choices about work and resources.
Source note: Thrift, Preface, Project Gutenberg #14418. Smiles introduces the book as a sequel to Self-Help and Character and explicitly says thrift is the basis of Self-Help and the foundation of much that is excellent in Character.