As a Man Thinketh

by James Allen

A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

Man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.

Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage (fruits) of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.

Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations, or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations. Man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself, the shaper and author of environment.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results.

Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle of the universe.

A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.

The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful (unhealthy) thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty.

He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power; and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome.

Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge,