What do you think?
Rate this book
Life and Labor: Characteristics of Men of Industry Culture and Genius
Written along the lines of the author's Self-Help and Character, this book shows readers what can be accomplished in life and labor by honest force of will and steady perseverance. "The chapters on Over Brain-work and the Conditions of Health may be of use to those who work with their Brains too much and their Physical System too little. This part of the work has been to a certain extent the result of personal experience." Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) 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. 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."
452 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Samuel Smiles
892 books60 followersSamuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904), was a Scottish author and government reformer, who campaigned on a Chartist platform. But he concluded that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His masterpiece, Self-Help (1859), promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. It has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism", and it raised Smiles to celebrity status almost overnight.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 12, 2020
I stumbled on this by coincidence when I was looking for other book. This book is one of the last books written by Samuel Smiles (Published around 1887). It is not a well-known work compared to his other books like Self Help or Character. Clearly, this not a popular book because my review for this book is the first review in goodreads!
Anyway, the books is just like his other books, full of biography examples and history illustrations. However, there is a difference in this one. He wrote it in his old age which gave it a different flavor. For example, the topic of death and old age is discussed in details in the book unlike his earlier books.
The topics discussed in this book include the power of will, work and its usefulness, punctuality, Education, character, inheritance, overwork, the pressure of brain work, habits, longevity, country boys and city boys, solitude, marriage, love, and death. These are only sliver of the information in the book. The last chapter in the book was dedicated to death, perhaps, because Samuel Smiles saw his end near, and meditated a lot on death. I really liked the closing remark of the book, and I include it in this review just to illustrate how beautiful is the writing of this forgotten author:
" We conclude with the words of Charles Fitz-Geoffry, the poet and preacher, who when speaking on the death of Mrs. Pym, the statesman's mother, in 1620, used these quaint but memorable words:" Man is, as it were, a book ; his birth is the title-page ; his baptism, the epistle dedicatory; his groans and crying, the epistle to the reader; his infancy and childhood, the argument and contents of the whole ensuing treatise; his life and actions, the subject; his crimes and errors, the faults escaped ; his repentance, the correction. Now there are some large volumes in folio; some little ones in sixteenmo; some are fayrer bound, some playner ; some in strong vellum, some in thin paper; some whose subject is piety and godliness, some (and too many such) pamphlets of wantonness and folly; but in the last page of every one, there stands a word which is finis, and this is the last word in every book. Such is the life of man : some longer, some shorter, some stronger, some weaker, some fairer, some coarser, some holy, some profane; but death comes in finis at the last, to close up the whole; for that is the end of all"
Not everybody likes the style that Samuel Smiles uses in his writing, but no one in his right mind will say that he did not learn something when he reads his books.
Excellent Book
Anyway, the books is just like his other books, full of biography examples and history illustrations. However, there is a difference in this one. He wrote it in his old age which gave it a different flavor. For example, the topic of death and old age is discussed in details in the book unlike his earlier books.
The topics discussed in this book include the power of will, work and its usefulness, punctuality, Education, character, inheritance, overwork, the pressure of brain work, habits, longevity, country boys and city boys, solitude, marriage, love, and death. These are only sliver of the information in the book. The last chapter in the book was dedicated to death, perhaps, because Samuel Smiles saw his end near, and meditated a lot on death. I really liked the closing remark of the book, and I include it in this review just to illustrate how beautiful is the writing of this forgotten author:
" We conclude with the words of Charles Fitz-Geoffry, the poet and preacher, who when speaking on the death of Mrs. Pym, the statesman's mother, in 1620, used these quaint but memorable words:" Man is, as it were, a book ; his birth is the title-page ; his baptism, the epistle dedicatory; his groans and crying, the epistle to the reader; his infancy and childhood, the argument and contents of the whole ensuing treatise; his life and actions, the subject; his crimes and errors, the faults escaped ; his repentance, the correction. Now there are some large volumes in folio; some little ones in sixteenmo; some are fayrer bound, some playner ; some in strong vellum, some in thin paper; some whose subject is piety and godliness, some (and too many such) pamphlets of wantonness and folly; but in the last page of every one, there stands a word which is finis, and this is the last word in every book. Such is the life of man : some longer, some shorter, some stronger, some weaker, some fairer, some coarser, some holy, some profane; but death comes in finis at the last, to close up the whole; for that is the end of all"
Not everybody likes the style that Samuel Smiles uses in his writing, but no one in his right mind will say that he did not learn something when he reads his books.
Excellent Book
December 11, 2020
Beautiful book full of many great ideas. it’s a summary of many truths of life. These wisdom’s are immortal, but the book is quite outdated.
Not only in words chosen and stories used, but also the choice of topics discussed. The reader should be open and willing to “go back into the roots” of those wisdoms, recall the old discussions and will be awarded with a better understanding of many concept of which behavior is good and which is bad. (Sometimes we now take something as granted (doesn’t mean we behave that way).. lets say slavery, almost no-one argue for slavery anymore (not that everyone fights for complete eradication, or that dlavery is non existent, i only mean that all arguments in favor of slavery has been surpassed) but this was not the case earlier.
Bigger shortage to me is a missing structure. More plain language and numbering, bullet point would help (although on the other side this would destroy the aesthetics and beauty of the book).
Not only in words chosen and stories used, but also the choice of topics discussed. The reader should be open and willing to “go back into the roots” of those wisdoms, recall the old discussions and will be awarded with a better understanding of many concept of which behavior is good and which is bad. (Sometimes we now take something as granted (doesn’t mean we behave that way).. lets say slavery, almost no-one argue for slavery anymore (not that everyone fights for complete eradication, or that dlavery is non existent, i only mean that all arguments in favor of slavery has been surpassed) but this was not the case earlier.
Bigger shortage to me is a missing structure. More plain language and numbering, bullet point would help (although on the other side this would destroy the aesthetics and beauty of the book).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews