He started the "Penny Magazine," which acquired a circulation of two hundred thousand the first year.

Knight projected the "Penny Cyclopedia," the "Library of Entertaining Knowledge," "Half-Hours with the Best Authors," and other useful works at a low price.

His whole adult life was spent in the work of elevating the common people by cheap, yet wholesome publications.

He died in poverty, but grateful people have erected a noble monument over his ashes.
How many rich dwellings there are, crowded with every appointment of luxury, that are only glittering caverns of selfishness and discontent! "Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." "No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger," says Beecher.

"It is the heart that makes a man rich.