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3 comments
Todd says:
Feb 16, 2008
He stole that quote from Benjamin Franklin, who was actually a deist. So much for those Christian self-help book!
Dr. Robert C. Worstell says:
Feb 16, 2008
Smiles was certainly the first to use “Self-Help” in the title. However, there are earlier claims of self-help books. One called “Secreta Secretorum” (Secret of Secrets) was published by hand (before printing presses) for over 500 years running – and it in turn was an English translation of an older Islamic mystic text.
If you wanted to get into the oral traditions of self-help, you’d have to go back and study what is now called “Huna”, a very old philosophy which predates Egyptian and traces are found all over this planet – including England.
Pingbacks/Trackbacks
Improve Thyself! On the Fantasy Person You’re Failing to Become | Mockingbird says:
Jan 20, 2018
[…] the self-improvement boom, it’s hard not to do a double-take. I mean, a lot of this stuff has Christian roots. But he’s getting at something Esther Perel once described in regard to the pressure people […]