Background
He was born at Haddington, Scotland, on the 23rd of December 1812. He was the eldest of eleven children left, on their father's death, to be supported by their mother on slender means.
(Excerpt from Lives of Boulton and Watt: Principally From ...)
Excerpt from Lives of Boulton and Watt: Principally From the Original Soho Mss The present volume concludes the author's Lives of the Engineers.' Its preparation was begun many years since. The favourable reception given to the Life of George Stephenson,' the principal improver and introducer of the locomotive engine, encouraged the author to follow it by a Life of James Watt, the prin cipal inventor and introducer of the condensing engine. On making inquiries, however, he found that the subject had already been taken in hand by J. P. Muir head, Esq., the literary executor of the late Mr. Watt, of Aston Hall, near Birmingham. As Mr. Muirhead was in all respects entitled to precedence, and was, moreover, in possession of the best sources of informa tion, the author's contemplated Life of Watt was abandoned, and he satisfied himself with embodying the substance of the materials he had collected in a review of Mr. Muirhead's work, which appeared in the Quarterly Review for July, 1858. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1330690257/?tag=2022091-20
(Excerpt from Self-Help Heaven helps those who help thems...)
Excerpt from Self-Help Heaven helps those who help themselves is a well tried maxim,l embodying in a small compass the results of vast human experience. The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national vigor and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates. Whatever is done for men or Classes, to a certain extent takes away the stimulus and necessity of doing for them selves; and where men are subjected to over-guidance and over-government, the inevitable tendency is to render them comparatively helpless. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0259868027/?tag=2022091-20
(This kindle edition is eight books collection written by ...)
This kindle edition is eight books collection written by Samuel Smiles. Works Included: A Boy's Voyage Round The World Character The Huguenots In France Industrial Biography Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist The Life Of George Stephenson And Of His Son Robert Stephenson Men Of Invention And Industry Self Help Thrift About Author: Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 16 April 1904), was a Scottish author and government reformer. He is most known for writing Self-Help, which "elevated Smiles to celebrity status: almost overnight, he became a leading pundit and much-consulted guru".
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TJYW71I/?tag=2022091-20
(This book is intended as a sequel to "Self-Help," and "Ch...)
This book is intended as a sequel to "Self-Help," and "Character." It might, indeed, have appeared as an introduction to these volumes; for Thrift is the basis of Self-Help, and the foundation of much that is excellent in Character. The author has already referred to the Use and Abuse of Money; but the lesson is worthy of being repeated and enforced. As he has already observed,Some of the finest qualities of human nature are intimately related to the right use of money; such as generosity, honesty, justice, and self-denial; as well as the practical virtues of economy and providence. On the other hand, there are their counterparts of avarice, fraud, injustice, and selfishness, as displayed by the inordinate lovers of gain; and the vices of thoughtlessness, extravagance, and improvidence, on the part of those who misuse and abuse the means entrusted to them.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1502367556/?tag=2022091-20
He was born at Haddington, Scotland, on the 23rd of December 1812. He was the eldest of eleven children left, on their father's death, to be supported by their mother on slender means.
He studied at a local school, leaving at the age of 14. He apprenticed to be a doctor under Dr. Robert Lewins. This arrangement enabled Smiles to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1829.
Educated at the Haddington Grammar School and at Edinburgh University, where he studied medicine and graduated in 1832, Smiles tried, unsuccessfully, to practise in his native village among 3000 healthy Scotsmen and in competition with seven other doctors. He added to his income by lecturing on chemistry and by writing for the press, and, finally abandoning the medical profession, he confined himself to journalism, and from 1838 till 1844 edited the weekly Leeds Times. Though he gave up regular journalism in 1844, he continued to be a frequent contributor to periodicals. From 1845 till 1854 he was secretary of the Leeds and Thirsk railway, and from 1854 till 1866 of the South Eastern railway. During his residence in Leeds he had opportunities of studying the characters of the remarkable men whose biographies he afterwards wrote. Here he came in contact with George Stephenson, whose Life by him, published in 1857, passed through five editions in its first year and was the precursor of a series of biographies of leaders in the world of industry, such as Lives of the Engineers (3 vols. , 1861-1862), Industrial Biography (1863), James Brindley and the Early Engineers (1864), Lives of Boulton and Watt (1865), Life of Thomas Telford (1867), The Life of a Scotch Naturalist (Thomas Edward) (1876), Robert Dick (1878), George Moore (1878), Men of Invention and Industry (1884), Life and Labour (1887), A Publisher and his Friends (a history of the house of John Murray) (1891), (1891), Jasmnin (1891), Josiah Wedgwood (1894). In 1859 had appeared his most successful book, Self-Help, a volume of popular ethics; 20, 000 copies were sold the first year, and by 1889 the sales had reached 150, 000 copies, while the book had been translated into 17 languages. Its success suggested others of similar purpose, like Character (1871), Thrift (1875), Duty (1880). Smiles also published two works dealing with the history of the Huguenots and a History of Ireland. His works are not only admirable for their simple and yet forcible style, but for the many useful and practical lessons which they enforce. Wholesome and stimulating, their whole tendency is to inculcate sound principles of life and the building up of manly and upright character. Dr Smiles was made hon. LL. D. of Edinburgh University in 1878, and in 1897 received from the king of Servia the Cross of Knight Commander of the Order of St Sava. He died in Kensington in his ninety-second year, on the 16th of April 1904.
His Autobiography was edited (1905) by T. Mackay.
(Excerpt from Self-Help Heaven helps those who help thems...)
(Excerpt from Lives of Boulton and Watt: Principally From ...)
(This kindle edition is eight books collection written by ...)
(This book is intended as a sequel to "Self-Help," and "Ch...)
(The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer 554 Pages.)
Quotes from others about the person
George Bernard Shaw, in his Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889), called Smiles "that modern Plutarch".
The liberal economist F. A. Hayek wrote in 1976 that: "It is probably a misfortune that, especially in the USA, popular writers like Samuel Smiles. .. have defended free enterprise on the ground that it regularly rewards the deserving, and it bodes ill for the future of the market order that this seems to have become the only defence of it which is understood by the general public. That it has largely become the basis of the self-esteem of the businessman often gives him an air of self-righteousness which does not make him more popular".
In 1962, the director of the British Institute of Management, John Marsh, said that young men who entered industry needed a sense of service and duty; they must be "men of character who know how to behave well as in phases of success"; they must possess self-discipline in thinking and behaviour: "There is something still to be said for Samuel Smiles's doctrine of self-help".
On 7 December 1843, Samuel married Sarah Ann Holmes Dixon in Leeds. They had three daughters and two sons.