Character. This item is unavailable.Character

Character is one of the greatest motive powers in the world. In its noblest embodiments, it exemplifies human nature in its highest forms, for it exhibits man at his best.**** Men of genuine excellence, in every station of life-men of industry, of integrity, of high principle, of sterling honesty of purpose-command the spontaneous homage of mankind. It is natural to believe in such men, to have confidence in them, and to imitate them. All that is good in the world is upheld by them, and without their presence in it the world would not be worth living in.-Samuel Smiles

For the much of his career, Smiles advocated individual self improvement. Smiles' self-help books have been cited as influential on the New Thought Movement in late 19th century America and England, and, in particular, on the career of the New Thought author Orison Swett Marden, who said that his early ambition had been to become "the Samuel Smiles of America." This classic book has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism".