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Book Name: As a Man Thinketh

Author: James Allen

Originally Published: 1902

Personal Rating: 10/10

🧠 What the book is about:

It’s an invitation to master oneself through mastering our own thinking.

Who we are, and what we become in life is not coincidence, but the result of how we manage our thoughts.

The book shares simple, yet powerful, and practical ideas for living a better life.

It’s written in straightforward language, but beautifully crafted, even poetic at times.

🚀 My thoughts?

It’s an easy read (<50 pages), and I’ll probably read more than once - ideally once a year, at least.

One of my favourite overarching principles is how the author connects everything to a higher purpose. Anything we think, do, or accomplish, if done without a purpose, lacks intelligence, and in my opinion, it will also feel empty.

Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.

The book challenged me to reflect on why I do what I do (as a job), vs what I have in my heart (as a calling/passion). It has inspired me to take action, even if the steps are small.

A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralising point of his thoughts. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings and imaginings. This is the royal road to self control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose, the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success.

I also enjoyed how several of his ideas parallel teachings found in The Bible.

✍🏻 My top quotes/ideas:

• A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.
• Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystalizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.
• 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-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
• Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury of thoughts he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the divine perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of the character, and man is their maker and master.
• Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad results and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Man understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.
• A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralising point of his thoughts. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings and imaginings. This is the royal road to self control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose, the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success.
• He who lives constantly in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who dwells in all that is pure and unselfish, will, as surely a the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full, become wise and noble in character, and rise into a position of influence and blessedness.
• A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him.
• He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would sacrifice much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
• They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it ‘luck’. They do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it ‘good fortune’, do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it chance.
• Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. it is the result of long and patient effort in self control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.

🎯 Other interesting ideas from the book:

• A noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favour or chance, but it’s the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of continued harbouring of grovelling thoughts.
• Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating towards perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul.
• Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a persons life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state.
• Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be a creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden supplies and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
• 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 of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.
• Bestial thoughts crystallise into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease. Lazy thoughts crystallise into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary.
• On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances. Pure thoughts crystallise into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace. Thoughts of courage, self reliance, and decision crystallise into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom.
• 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 thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with youthfulness.
• Out of a clean heart comes a clean life and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body.
• Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.
• If you would protect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind.
• Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.
• To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognise failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.
• He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.
• Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations.
• A strong man cannot help a weaker man unless that weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weaker man must become strong of himself. None but himself can alter his condition.
• By the aid of self control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well directed thought a man ascends; by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and considering of thought a man descends.
• Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give away when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.
• Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all, heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
• Great inspiring story in page 42 about a young guy hard pressed by poverty and labour, who despite his tough reality (unschooled, lack of refinement, working long hours in an unhealthy workshop), he dreamt of better things, an ideal condition of his life. Unrest urges him to action, and he utilizes all his spare time and means, small though they are, to the development of his talents. He becomes a master with worldwide influence, he changes the lives of men and women. He has become one with his ideal.
• In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. Gifts, powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized.
• The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how to adapt himself to others. The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a shade giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm. ‘Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet tempered, balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for they are always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite poise of character, which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture, the fruitage of the soul.

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