Duty - Smiles, Samuel

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Résumé :
Samuel Smiles, (born Dec. 23, 1812, Haddington, Berwickshire, Scot.&mdash...

Biographie:
Samuel Smiles was born on 23 December 1812 in Haddington, United Kingdom, to Janet Wilson and Samuel Smiles. He became a prominent British author and government reformer, known for advocating personal responsibility, self-improvement, and practical effort as the foundation for societal progress. Although he engaged with political movements, he emphasized that genuine advancement arises more from cultivating positive attitudes and industrious habits than from legislative changes. Smiles' writings often encouraged perseverance, diligence, and moral integrity, inspiring readers to pursue self-development and contribute meaningfully to their communities. His influential works offered guidance on achieving success through personal initiative and ethical conduct, blending practical advice with motivational insight. Smiles balanced his reformist ideals with literary pursuits, shaping public discourse on character, work ethic, and civic responsibility. He passed away on 16 April 1904 in Kensington, London, and was laid to rest at Brompton Cemetery. Samuel Smiles' life exemplifies dedication to self-help principles and the transformative power of individual effort....

Sommaire:
died April 16, 1904, London), Scottish author best known for his didactic work Self-Help (1859), which, with its successors, Character (1871), Thrift (1875), and Duty (1880), enshrined the basic Victorian values associated with the gospel of work. One of 11 children left fatherless in 1832, Smiles learned the meaning of self-reliance. Although he qualified in medicine at Edinburgh in 1832, he soon abandoned medical practice for journalism, moving to Leeds, where from 1838 to 1842 he edited the progressive and reformist Leeds Times. His radicalism was a practical application of the doctrines of the utilitarian philosophers (philosophical radicals) Jeremy Bentham and James Mill. He was a zealous advocate of material progress based on individual enterprise and free trade. From 1845 to 1866 he was engaged in railway administration, and in 1857 he published a life of the inventor and founder of the railways, George Stephenson. He followed this with Self-Help, with Illustrations of Character and Conduct, the outcome of a series of lectures on self-improvement given to young men in Leeds...