20 Quotes from the Father of Inspiration Literature

Have you ever thought about who started the ball rolling on all this talk about “self help,” “inspiration,” “motivation,” and “leadership”?

Where did the literary greats and positive success authors come from and who influenced the Dale Carnegie’s, the Orison Swett Marden the Writings Og Mandino and W-Clement Stone, Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill and others?

At the Speakers Roundtable 2009 Conference in West Lake Village California, member Danny Cox put on a “Links to the Past” – strength for the future presentation seminar.

The answer to this question was Samuel Smiles (1812-1904). He wrote the first book “Self Help” which was published in 1859, some 150 years ago.

Samuel Smiles, the eldest of eleven children, was born on 23rd December, 1812. Samuel’s parents ran a small general store in Haddington in Scotland. After attending the local school he left at fourteen and joined Dr. Robert Lewins as an apprentice.

After making good progress with Dr. Lewins, Smiles went to Edinburgh University in 1829 to study medicine. While in Edinburgh, Smiles became involved in the campaign for parliamentary reform. During this period he had several articles on the subject published by the progressive Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle.

Smiles graduated in 1832 and found work as a doctor in Haddington.

In 1837 Samuel Smiles began contributing articles on parliamentary reform for the Leeds Times. The following year he was invited to become the newspaper’s editor. Smiles decided to abandon his career as a doctor and to become a full-time worker for the cause of political change.

In the 1850s Samuel Smiles completely abandoned his interest in parliamentary reform. Smiles now argued that self-help provided the best route to success. His book Self-Help, which preached industry, thrift and self-improvement, was published in 1859. Samuel Smiles died on 16th April, 1904.

Here are 20 Samuel Smiles quotes. I am sure you can see his influence in modern day “self help” books.

1. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

2. An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.

3. Enthusiasm… the sustaining power of all great action.

4. He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.

5. Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.

6. Hope… is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.

7. I’m as happy a man as any in the world, for the whole world seems to smile upon me!

8. It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure had done.

9. It is energy – the central element of which is will – that produces the miracle that is enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is what is called force of character and the sustaining power of all great action.

10. Knowledge conquered by labor becomes a possession – a property entirely our own.

11. Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.

12. Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.

13. Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.

14. Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.

15. Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.

16. Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them.

17. Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.

18. Progress however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.

19. The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.

20. The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted.