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Man is made or unmade by himself.
Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err. This is just as true of those who feel “out of harmony” with their surroundings as of those who are contented with them.
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives it own.
Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.
Not what he wished and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns.
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. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles.
Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life. Righteousness, not corruption, is the mold-ing and moving force in the spiritual government of the world. This being so, man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right.
Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot. It rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.
A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.
Thoughts of doubt and fear can never accomplish anything. They always lead to failure.
He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.
As he thinks, so is he; as he continues to think, so he remains.
It has been usual for men to think and to say, “Many men are slaves because one is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor!” But there is amongst an increasing few a tendency to reverse this judgement and to say, “One man is an oppressor because many are slaves; let us despise the slaves.”
He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg. And in the highest vision of a soul a waking angle stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
You will receive that which you earn; no more, no less.
Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts–your vision, your ideal.
The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, “How lucky he is!” Observing another become skilled intellectually, they exclaim, “How highly favored he is!” And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, “How chance helps him at every turn!” They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have encountered in order to gain their experience. They have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made,
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In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results. The strength of the effort is the measure of the result.
