Every now and then they were awarded prizes - Self-Help by Smiles, and other books suitable for perusal by persons suffering from almost complete obliteration of the mental faculties.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker mocks self-help books like Smiles', suggesting they suit only those with diminished mental capacity.
- In plain terms
- Self-help books are mocked as suitable only for unintelligent people.
- What can you take from it?
- Critics view self-help as simplistic or for the unthinking.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is self-help too basic?
- Who reads self-help?
Another view
The statement is an insult rather than a fair critique of the content.
More from Samuel Smiles
A man who devotes himself to this pursuit, body and soul, can scarcely fail to become rich. Very little brains will do:
Permalink to quote #8 It's a brutal book; it ought to be burnt by the common hangman. Smiles was the arch-Philistine, and his book the apotheosis of respectability, gigmanity, and s…
Permalink to quote #10 We often discover what WILL do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
Permalink to quote #7
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