As editor of the Leeds Times, he advocated radical causes ranging from women's suffrage to free trade to parliamentary reform. He is best known today as the writer of books extolling virtues of self help, and biographies lauding the achievements of "heroic" engineers. His self-help books have been citied as influential on the New Thought Movement in late 19th century America and England. His works include: Self- Help: With Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance (1859), Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers (1863), The Life of Thomas Telford (1867), Character (1871), Thrift (1875), Men of Invention and Industry (1874), Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist (1891) and A Publisher and His Friends: Memoir and Correspondence of John Murray (1891).

Samuel 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.