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Samuel Smiles

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Samuel Smiles


Born
in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland
December 23, 1812

Died
April 16, 1904

Genre
Self Help, Biography


Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904), was a Scottish author and government reformer, who campaigned on a Chartist platform. But he concluded that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His masterpiece, Self-Help (1859), promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. It has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism", and it raised Smiles to celebrity status almost overnight. ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.94 · 889 ratings · 108 reviews · 812 distinct works • Similar authors
Self-Help
3.83 avg rating — 406 ratings — published 1859
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Character
4.32 avg rating — 111 ratings — published 2009 — 223 editions
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The Huguenots in France
3.59 avg rating — 76 ratings — published 1893 — 93 editions
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Thrift
4.21 avg rating — 53 ratings — published 1878
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Lives of the Engineers: Geo...
4.11 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 1862 — 57 editions
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The Life of Thomas Telford
3.93 avg rating — 30 ratings — published 1867 — 87 editions
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Industrial Biography, Iron ...
3.75 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 1863 — 117 editions
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Lives of the Engineers
4.75 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2009 — 35 editions
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Men of Invention and Industry
3.50 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2001 — 121 editions
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The Huguenots - Their Settl...
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2002 — 124 editions
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More books by Samuel Smiles…
Quotes by Samuel Smiles  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“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, Happy Homes and the Hearts That Make Them
tags: acts, characters, destiny, habits, thoughts
156 likes
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“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us. ...Hope sweetens the memory of experiences well loved. It tempers our troubles to our growth and our strength. It befriends us in the dark hours, excites us in bright ones. It lends promise to the future and purpose to the past. It turns discouragement to determination.

Samuel Smiles
”
― Samuel Smiles
49 likes
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“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
39 likes
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