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Samuel Smiles

File:Samuel_Smiles_by_Sir_George_Reid.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Samuel Smiles

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Scottish author (1812-1904)

OverviewAI-generated

Samuel Smiles was a Scottish writer, journalist, biographer, and philosopher. Born in Haddington on December 23, 1812, he was educated at the University of Edinburgh. He wrote in English and held citizenship in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Smiles died in Kensington on April 16, 1904, and is buried at Brompton Cemetery.

His literary output includes works such as *Duty*, *The diffusion of political knowledge among the working classes*, and *The story of the life of George Stephenson, railway engineer*. Other titles associated with him include *George Moore* and *El carácter*. He is also noted for the quotes, "A place for everything, and everything in its place," and "Good actions give strength to ourselves, and inspire good actions in others."

Synthesized by Vinony from 33 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Wikiquote, Europeana Sparql, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1812
Died
1904
Works
234

Top works

  • George Moore
  • The diffusion of political knowledge among the working classes
  • Duty
  • El carácter
  • The story of the life of George Stephenson, railway engineer

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Group
Origin
United Kingdom
Active from
1989

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
17
Total plays
228

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Samuel+Smiles">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Samuel Smiles

Quotes

  • England was nothing, compared to continental nations until she had become commercial…until about the middle of the last century, when a number of ingenious and inventive men, without apparent relation to each other, arose in various parts of the kingdom, succeeded in giving an immense impulse to all the branches of the national industry; the result of which has been a harvest of wealth and prosperity, perhaps without a parallel in the history of the world.
  • A place for everything, and everything in its place.
  • Good actions give strength to ourselves, and inspire good actions in others.
  • Mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an individual reform.
  • The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great though that evil be, but he who is in the thrall of his own moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice.
  • Nothing is more common than energy in money-making, quite independent of any higher object than its accumulation. A man who devotes himself to this pursuit, body and soul, can scarcely fail to become rich. Very little brains will do; spend less than you earn; add guinea to guinea; scrape and save; and the pile of gold will gradually rise.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
23 December 1812, Haddington, East Lothian , Scotland
Died
16 April 1904 (age 91), Kensington , London, England
Alma mater
University of Edinburgh
Known for
Biographies and self-help books
Notable work
Self-Help

via Wikipedia infobox

Works in European collections

10 objects attributed to Samuel Smiles, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~21 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904) 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. His primary work, 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 had lasting effects on British political thought.

Early life and education

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Samuel Smiles” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (3)