Quotes by Alexander Smith

• A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.
• A great man is the man who does something for the first time.
• A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.
• A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles in the road.
• Christmas is the day that holds all time together.
• Books are a finer world within the world.
• If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness.
• Trifles make up the happiness or the misery of human life.
• To sit for one's portrait is like being present at one's own creation.
• To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I care for.
• There is no ghost so difficult to lay as the ghost of an injury.
• The world is not so much in need of new thoughts as that when thought grows old and worn with usage it should, like current coin, be called in, and, from the mint of genius, reissued fresh and new.
• The sea complains upon a thousand shores.
• The saddest thing that befalls a soul Is when it loses faith in God and woman.
• The man who in this world can keep the whiteness of his soul is not likely to lose it in any other.
• The dead keep their secrets, and in a while we shall be as wise as they - and as taciturn.
• We bury love; Forgetfulness grows over it like grass: That is a thing to weep for, not the dead.
• In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place today, it is vain to seek it there tomorrow. You can not lay a trap for it.
• We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.
• If you wish to make a man look noble, your best course is to kill him. What superiority he may have inherited from his race, what superiority nature may have personally gifted him with, comes out in death.
• If you do your fair day's work, you are certain to get your fair day's wage - in praise or pudding, whichever happens to suit your taste.
• If the egotist is weak, his egotism is worthless. If the egotist is strong, acute, full of distinctive character, his egotism is precious, and remains a possession of the race.
• I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory.
• I go into my library and all history unrolls before me.
• How deeply seated in the human heart is the liking for gardens and gardening.
• Everything is sweetened by risk.
• Every man's road in life is marked by the graves of his personal liking.
• Death is the ugly fact which Nature has to hide, and she hides it well.
• Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.
• Trees are your best antiques.
• Adversity is the fire that tempers us into steel, taking what's weak and making it strong.
• Seize every leap - for in bounds unknown greatness awaits.
• Believe in the beauty of small beginnings, for every grand journey starts with a single step.
• Some people inspire with their actions, while others move hearts with their words.
• Success is not determined by how much you have, but by how much you are willing to give.
• The more you learn, the more you grow; never stop seeking knowledge.
• Creativity is the key that unlocks new possibilities in the tangled webs of human existence.
• Success is not the destination, it is a journey of perseverance and growth.
• Success is the result of hard work, dedication, and a little sprinkle of courage.
• Don't just exist, live with intention and purpose.
• The only way to achieve true greatness is to first conquer yourself.
• The actions we take today shape the world we create tomorrow.