About Samuel Smiles
Samuel Smiles was a British author and government reformer. He campaigned on a Chartist platform and argued that progress would come more from new attitudes than new laws. His main work, Self‑Help (1859), promoted thrift, blamed poverty on irresponsible habits, and attacked materialism and laissez‑faire government. It has been called the “bible of mid‑Victorian liberalism” and influenced British political thought for years.
![“Whilst writing all this, I have had in my mind a woman, whose strong and serious mind would not have failed to support me in these contentions. I lost her thirty years ago [I was a child then]--nevertheless, ever living in my memory, she follows me from age to age. She suffered with me in my…” quote by Samuel Smiles](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/3dc/samuel-smiles-2037_life-lessons_whilst-writing-all-this-i-have-had-in-my_2508705.jpg)
