Community Reviews
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” I read this little book at least once a year. James Allen has written what I believe is the most important “self-help” book ever written and it was first published in 1903. Everything we do, say, or accomplish in this life begins with our thoughts, and yet we pay little attention to the process or the product it produces. The great truth Allen illustrates is that “man is the causer of his circumstances, and that whilst aiming at a good end, he is continually frustrating its accomplishment by encouraging thoughts and desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that end.” He emphasizes that good thoughts can never produce bad results, nor can bad thoughts produce good results. I am once again reminded of the biblical verse that states, “by their fruits, ye shall know them.”
“Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are” and our thoughts produce who we are. We are constantly reviling, whining, and moaning about the state of the world. We spend our time seeking happiness, fulfillment, and purpose in things outside ourselves. Man, constantly seeks to improve his circumstances by getting a better job, buying a bigger house, making more money, changing locations (the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence). Ezra Taft Benson, former Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration said, “It is not important what happens to us in this life, as how we respond to it.” Instead of seeking to improve our circumstances would it not be better to improve ourselves? “Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power and he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.”
This is a beautifully written thesis on how powerful thought is and how we have the power through thinking to change not only ourselves but the world around us.
“Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are” and our thoughts produce who we are. We are constantly reviling, whining, and moaning about the state of the world. We spend our time seeking happiness, fulfillment, and purpose in things outside ourselves. Man, constantly seeks to improve his circumstances by getting a better job, buying a bigger house, making more money, changing locations (the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence). Ezra Taft Benson, former Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration said, “It is not important what happens to us in this life, as how we respond to it.” Instead of seeking to improve our circumstances would it not be better to improve ourselves? “Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power and he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.”
This is a beautifully written thesis on how powerful thought is and how we have the power through thinking to change not only ourselves but the world around us.
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