Book: Character

Overview
Samuel Smiles’s Character (1871) extends the moral philosophy he popularized in Self-Help by arguing that personal character is the foundation of individual happiness, social trust, and national strength. He presents character not as a matter of birth or station but as the fruit of daily conduct, habits of honesty, self-command, perseverance, and benevolence cultivated within ordinary life. The book blends moral exhortation with anecdote and biography, offering portraits of exemplary men and women to show how steady virtues, more than talent or circumstance, determine the quality of a life and the health of a society.

Formation of Character
Smiles roots character in the discipline of the home. Parents, especially mothers, shape dispositions through example, affection, and firmness; the household becomes the first school of conscience. He stresses the power of early impressions and the cumulative force of habit. Character is formed by the repetition of small acts, punctuality, cleanliness, thrift, patience, until they become second nature. Education, in his view, must address the heart as well as the mind, since knowledge unguided by principle can be misused. Companionship has a decisive role, for people rise or fall to the level of their associates; good company inspires restraint, aspiration, and integrity.

Work, Self-Control, and Habit
Work is treated as moral training. Regular, useful labor disciplines the will, gives purpose, and binds the individual to the common good. Smiles links diligence with self-control, arguing that mastery over impulse underlies all other excellences. He warns against idleness, vanity, and speculative shortcuts, insisting that steady effort and prudence are safer and more ennobling paths than gambling on credit or luck. Habits are portrayed as rails on which the life runs: once laid down by repeated choices, they carry a person forward smoothly toward virtue or vice.

Truthfulness, Courtesy, and the Gentleman
Commercial honesty is a recurring theme. Smiles contends that truthfulness in trade, fairness in contracts, and punctual fulfillment of obligations create the trust on which prosperity depends. Manners, he argues, are the expression of morals; courtesy, temperate speech, and kindly consideration oil the wheels of daily intercourse. His ideal of the gentleman is ethical, not hereditary: a true gentleman is measured by character, modesty, courage, purity of life, and service to others, rather than by wealth or title. Religion informs this code, but Smiles emphasizes practical Christianity lived through duty rather than doctrinal dispute.

Cheerfulness, Courage, and the Discipline of Adversity
Smiles esteems cheerfulness as a moral force that lightens burdens and makes cooperation possible. He praises fortitude under trial and regards setbacks as the forge of strength. Experience, especially hardship honestly met, tempers pride, broadens sympathies, and refines judgment. The goal is not a life free from struggle, but one in which struggle becomes schooling for higher conduct.

Society and National Character
From the individual upward, Smiles builds a civic vision: families anchored by principle make trustworthy neighborhoods; trustworthy neighborhoods make a nation durable. National greatness, he maintains, depends less on armies or riches than on the moral fiber of its citizens, on their veracity, industry, thrift, and public spirit. Institutions matter, but they rest ultimately on the everyday righteousness of ordinary people.

Style and Sources
The book’s method is illustrative and hortatory. Smiles interweaves maxims with biographical sketches drawn from statesmen, engineers, reformers, and artisans, using their lives to make the abstract concrete. The tone is earnest, practical, and accessible, seeking to persuade by example that character is both achievable and indispensable.