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Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.

Work educates the body, as study educates the mind; and that is the best state of society in which there is some work for every man's leisure, and some leisure for every man's work.

hope, which is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for whoso hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.

Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.

The road to success may be steep to climb, and it puts to the proof the energies of him who would reach the summit.

Failure in any good cause is, however, honourable, whilst success in any bad cause is merely infamous.

Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators.

Energy enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgery and dry details, and carries him onward and upward in every station in life.

Difficulties may intimidate the weak, but they act only as a wholesome stimulus to men of resolution and valour.

What is done in business must be well done; for it is better to accomplish perfectly a small amount of work, than to half-do ten times as much.

Time should not be allowed to pass without yielding fruits, in the form of something learnt worthy of being known, some good principle cultivated, or some good habit strengthened.

The road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will usually be the most successful.

Labour is not only a necessity and a duty, but a blessing: only the idler feels it to be a curse.

Work in moderation is healthy, as well as agreeable to the human constitution.

In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful

The mere drudgery undergone by some men in carrying on their undertakings has been something extraordinary, but the drudgery they regarded as the price of success.

Such biographies increase a man's self-reliance by demonstrating what men can be, and what they can do; fortifying his hopes and elevating his aims in life.

With perseverance, the very odds and ends of time may be worked up into results of the greatest value.

Patience lies at the root of all pleasures, as well as of all powers.

Nothing can be more certain than that the character can only be sustained and strengthened by its own energetic action.

Work is the law of our being--the living principle that carries men and nations onward.

Courage may be displayed in everyday life as well as in historic fields of action.

A man must so train his habits as to rely upon his own powers and depend upon his own courage in moments of emergency.

Energy of temperament, with a moderate degree of wisdom, will carry a man further than any amount of intellect without it.

A man must have the courage to be himself, and not the shadow or the echo of another.