Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 393

One of the results of industry and thrift is the accumulation of Capital. Capital represents the self-denial, the providence, and the enterprise of the past. The most successful accumulators of capital have in all times risen from the ranks of labour itself; they are working men who have shot ahead of their fellows, and who now give employment instead of receiving it. These persons,--who are not the less working men because they have ceased to be manual labourers,--by creating and extending the sphere of productive industry, must be regarded as amongst the most effective benefactors of the people, as they unquestionably are among the principal sources of the power and wealth of any nation. Without the capital accumulated by their thrift during many generations, the lot of the artizan would be most precarious.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 393 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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