The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.
Life Nature Wisdom

About This Quote

About Samuel Smiles

Samuel Smiles was a 19th-century British author. Samuel Smiles was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Life — Reflections on the meaning, challenges, and beauty of life
  • Nature — Appreciation for the natural world and our place within it
  • Wisdom — Timeless insights drawn from experience and reflection

More quotes by Samuel Smiles

“Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.”
— Samuel Smiles
hope

“Sow a thought, and you reap an act;Sow an act, and you reap a habit;Sow a habit, and you reap a character;Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.”
— Samuel Smiles
acts characters destiny habits

“It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.”
— Samuel Smiles
advice example failures inspirational

“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.”
— Samuel Smiles
Success Wisdom Mistake

“Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.”
— Samuel Smiles
Best Men Well-Being

“Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.”
— Samuel Smiles
Good Inspire Actions
View all quotes by Samuel Smiles →

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