Samuel Smiles warns us against pursuing popularity for its own sake, saying that it is a kind of cowardice.

John Wesley wrote to a young William Wilberforce to encourage him in his campaign against the slave trade.

An irate coal merchant squares up to the oh-so-righteous gentleman who didn’t like the way he was treating his horse.

Economist Adam Smith so changed the conversation in Britain that most people take his groundbreaking insights for granted.

John Buchan warned that the great figures of history are often beyond their biographers’ comprehension.

Herbert Bury distinguished two kinds of overseas investment, and only one was worthy of Englishmen.