Samuel Smiles：Self-Help, Excerpt 220

Much will be done if we do but try. Nobody knows what he can do till he has tried; and few try their best till they have been forced to do it. “_If_ I could do such and such a thing,” sighs the desponding youth. But nothing will be done if he only wishes. The desire must ripen into purpose and effort; and one energetic attempt is worth a thousand aspirations. It is these thorny “ifs”—the mutterings of impotence and despair—which so often hedge round the field of possibility, and prevent anything being done or even attempted. “A difficulty,” said Lord Lyndhurst, “is a thing to be overcome;” grapple with it at once; facility will come with practice, and strength and fortitude with repeated effort. Thus the mind and character may be trained to an almost perfect discipline, and enabled to act with a grace, spirit, and liberty, almost incomprehensible to those who have not passed through a similar experience.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/935
Locator：Excerpt 220 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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