Walt Whitman

Samuel Smiles

1859 · Scotland · London

“HEAVEN helps those who help themselves” is a well-tried maxim, embodying in a small compass the results of vast human experience.

Self-Help, the first sentence

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Mencius 孟子

4th century BC · Zou, Warring States China · A story told to show that vital spirit cannot be forced. He adds: "Few in the world do not help their seedlings grow."

There was a man of Song who, grieved that his seedlings were not growing, pulled them up a little. He came home worn out and told his family, "I am tired today. I have been helping the seedlings grow." His son ran out to look, and the seedlings had withered.

宋人有閔其苗之不長而揠之者，芒芒然歸。謂其人曰：「今日病矣，予助苗長矣。」其子趨而往視之，苗則槁矣。

Mencius, Gongsun Chou I

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