As a Man Thinketh: The Complete Original Edition (With Bonus Material)

By James Allen

James Allen's classic guide to harnessing the power of your own mind

Also includes the bonus book From Poverty to Power

In As A Man Thinketh, New Thought teacher James Allen reveals the fundamental truth of human nature: “A man is literally what he thinks.” Allen’s deceptively simple principle has changed the lives of millions of readers, making As A Man Thinketh a classic bestseller for decades. In addition to the original text of As A Man Thinketh, this edition also includes Allen’s deeply thoughtful work From Poverty to Power.

Allen explains that our character, identity, ability, and success are all determined by the thoughts in our minds. Instead of finding ourselves victims of the world, each of us has the ability to shape and define our own destinies. Finances, health, social status, and success are all external manifestations of the thoughts that populate our minds. Allen offers his readers an opportunity to seize control of their minds and create the lives they’ve always imagined.

This edition of As A Man Thinketh is part of the new Basics of Success series, a collection of everyday guidebooks for everyone looking to improve their life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Mar 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781250780034

James Allen

Born in 1864 in England, James Allen took his first job at fifteen to support his family. Allen worked as a factory knitter and later a private secretary before writing his first book, From Poverty to Power, in 1901. In 1903 he completed his best-known work: As a Man Thinketh. Allen wrote nineteen books, including his spiritual journal, The Light of Reason, before he died at age forty-seven in 1912. While not widely known during his lifetime, Allen later came to be seen as a pioneer of contemporary inspirational literature.

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As a Man Thinketh: The Complete Original Edition with Bonus Material by James Allen

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Table of Contents

About the Author

Copyright Page

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INTRODUCTION

by Joel Fotinos

The book you are reading now is one that has changed the lives of literally millions of people, including myself. It may be small in size, but it is great in both meaning and legacy. And now, it has the opportunity to influence the life of the most important person in the world: you.

Amazingly, As a Man Thinketh was initially published in 1903, and yet the message it contains is timeless. It is credited with being one of the first popular self-help books, and went on to influence many others, including three authors who went on to influence millions on their own: Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich), Norman Vincent Peale (author of The Power of Positive Thinking), and Dale Carnegie (author of How to Win Friends and Influence People). Read their books, and you will see Allen’s influence in their ideas and writings. Additionally, the cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bob Smith, cited this book as a main influence on his thought and actions. The book is still recommended by many people within the recovery movement.

In addition to these four people, As a Man Thinketh also influenced people in all walks of life, from business (especially entrepreneurs, managers, leaders, and CEOs), to spirituality (especially the New Thought movement), students, politicians, and more. In fact, if you do a simple Google search about the book, you will find it has touched the lives of people all around the world, and from all backgrounds.

All of this shows the powerful effect that As a Man Thinketh has had on the world since its publication. The book is more popular than ever, and in all editions still sells tens of thousands of copies each year. While the rights for the book are in the public domain, many of the editions that are on sale are incomplete, augmented, altered, or riddled with errors or poor formatting. This edition that you are holding is 100 percent complete and original.

James Allen took a line from Proverbs in the Bible (Proverbs 23:7, to be exact) as his touchstone, and he used it to describe his philosophy, which teaches that thought is the key to altering our lives. He wanted readers to realize that they themselves are makers of themselves, and that our thoughts are the method for this process.

James Allen himself was a fascinating man. Born in 1864 in Leicester, England, he endured hardships and poverty. But Allen was always curious, and he began to read the writings from the world’s wisdom traditions, and eventually the books from the teachers of the New Thought movement that was creating a stir in the States. He began applying these empowering teachings in his own life, and eventually was able to quit his job as a framework knitter, which had him working long hours and was strenuous labor. First he was able to become a private secretary and stationer, and eventually, after the publication of As a Man Thinketh, to quit that and earn his living as a writer and editor.

Allen wrote for Herald of the Golden Age magazine, and eventually founded a magazine called Light of Reason. His first two books, From Poverty to Power, which is also included in this volume, and All These Things Added, did well, but it was his third book, As a Man Thinketh, that broke through and became a popular title, even more so in the United States than in his home country. He went on to write nearly two dozen books, some published after his death in 1912. While his writing was popular, it was the short volume As a Man Thinketh that ended up being his masterpiece.

How best to read this book? You can read it in whatever way feels best to you—but if you want to truly study it, my suggestion is to first read the entire text of As a Man Thinketh in one sitting. It’s short and won’t take long. Then read one section at a time, perhaps one a day for a week, spending the day ruminating on that section’s main messages. Each of the seven sections is short, to the point, and they build upon one another. One other suggestion? Underline or write in a journal those ideas that have the greatest meaning to you. Perhaps even write those ideas on recipe cards—one idea each—and carry those cards with you, so that you can memorize them, and begin thinking of how to apply these ideas in your life.

When you feel you have fully integrated the ideas of As a Man Thinketh in your life, do the same process with the bonus book in this edition, From Poverty to Power.

Ultimately, Allen’s wish was that readers wouldn’t just read his words, but rather they would apply the ideas, and embody them, as he did. As his wife, Lily, wrote about Allen, the ideas in his books came only when he had lived it out in his own life. Let his example, then, be ours. Read the ideas, and then live them out in your own life. Each of us is literally what we think, Allen writes, our character being the complete sum of all our thoughts. Reading this book will elevate your thoughts, and in turn help you live a great life. Let Allen’s ideas take root in your mind, and bear great fruit.

AS A MAN THINKETH

THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL EDITION

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Thought and Character

Effect of Thought on Circumstances

Effect of Thought on Health and the Body

Thought and Purpose

The Thought-Factor in Achievement

Visions and Ideals

Serenity

FOREWORD

This little volume (the result of meditation and experience) is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written-upon subject of the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that,

They themselves are makers of themselves,

by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage; that mind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness.

—James Allen

THOUGHT AND CHARACTER

The aphorism, As a man thinketh in his heart so is he, not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called spontaneous and unpremeditated as to those which are deliberately executed.

Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its