Kalamdan

Samuel Smiles

Self-Help

Self-Help, Money and Success

Cover of Self-Help

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Language
English
First published
1859
Reading time
600 minutes
Chapters
20 chapters

About this book

Self-Help began as talks that Samuel Smiles gave to a group of young working men in Leeds who met in the evenings to teach one another.

Its message is simple: character and steady effort matter more than birth, money or luck. Smiles proves it with hundreds of short life stories of inventors, potters, artists, scientists, soldiers and men of business who rose through patience and hard work. Published in 1859, it sold in enormous numbers, was translated into many languages and gave the whole self-help shelf its name. Read a chapter at a time for its lively anecdotes.

THIS is a revised edition of a book which has already been received with considerable favour at home and abroad. It has been reprinted in various forms in America; translations have appeared in Dutch and French, and others are about to appear in German and…

Preface

About this edition

  • Source

    Project Gutenberg (eBook #935)

    Text version

    Project Gutenberg eBook #935 (updated 29 January 2021), downloaded 7 November 2026: John Murray's popular edition of 1897, which prints the author's revised text of 1866 (first published 1859). The title page and contents list were not imported. The author's preface to the revised edition, his introduction to the first edition, the 13 chapters and his own footnotes (gathered at the end of the book, as in the source) are unchanged, except that the misprinted title of chapter III ("He Great Potters") is corrected from the book's own contents list.

  • License

    Public domain

    Copyright status last verified: 9 November 2026

  • Category

    Self-Help, Money and Success

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Chapters

20 chapters
  1. Preface5 min
  2. Introduction to the First Edition5 min
  3. Chapter I. Self-Help—National and Individual37 min
  4. Chapter II. Leaders of Industry—Inventors and Producers, part 1 of 252 min
  5. Chapter II. Leaders of Industry—Inventors and Producers, part 2 of 24 min
  6. Chapter III. Three Great Potters—Palissy, Böttgher, Wedgwood37 min
  7. Chapter IV. Application and Perseverance35 min
  8. Chapter V. Helps and Opportunities—Scientific Pursuits53 min
  9. Chapter VI. Workers in Art, part 1 of 252 min
  10. Chapter VI. Workers in Art, part 2 of 218 min
  11. Chapter VII. Industry and the Peerage30 min
  12. Chapter VIII. Energy and Courage, part 1 of 252 min
  13. Chapter VIII. Energy and Courage, part 2 of 28 min
  14. Chapter IX. Men of Business38 min
  15. Chapter X. Money—Its Use and Abuse35 min
  16. Chapter XI. Self-Culture—Facilities and Difficulties, part 1 of 251 min
  17. Chapter XI. Self-Culture—Facilities and Difficulties, part 2 of 217 min
  18. Chapter XII. Example—Models33 min
  19. Chapter XIII. Character—The True Gentleman39 min
  20. Footnotes8 min

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