Notes and Quotes from As a Man Thinketh
Source: Amazon
When I read it: December 2020
Why I read it: As a Man Thinketh has been on my list to read for longer than a year. Some consider it to be one of the top self-help books of all time. While this book is only 50ish pages, I found the writing to be quite difficult to follow. It took me more time than I’m willing to admit to digest the content and translate it into modern-day eighth-grade reading level takeaways. If you’d like to save some time, check out these simple notes and quotes.
Go to the Amazon listing for the book or scroll down for my notes.
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My notes
About James Allen
Source: Amazon
James Allen (1864-1912) was an Englishman who retired from the business world to pursue writing and philosophy. James is best known for As a Man Thinketh, but he wrote several other books on the power of thought to increase one’s capabilities. He is considered a pioneer of the self-help movement.
About As a Man Thinketh
As a Man Thinketh is a self-help book by James Allen. It was published in 1903. According to Allen, the book is not intended as a complete essay on the power of thought. But rather, it is intended to help men and women realize that "they themselves are makers of themselves" through their own thoughts. The title of the book is based on this quote from the Bible. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he” — Proverbs 23:7
The book is organized into 7 chapters:
Thought and Character
Effect of Thought on Circumstance
Effect of Thought on Health and Body
Thought and Purpose
The Thought-Factor in Achievement
Visions and Ideals
Serenity
TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
My quick summary of the book is:
How you experience everything in life flows from your mind’s thoughts.
Thought leads to actions that lead to circumstances.
Want to change your circumstances? Change your actions.
Want to change your actions? Change your thoughts.
(Let me know if you think I’m missing something more profound or nuanced)
1. Thought and Character
You are what you think ⇒ Your character is the sum of all your thoughts. (This applies to all thoughts, both intentional and accidental.)
Thoughts turn into actions that lead to happiness or suffering ⇒ It’s basic cause and effect: evil thoughts cause pain / good thoughts cause joy ⇒ A good person is the result of good thinking; a bad person is the result of bad thinking.
Every human’s character ranges somewhere between pure evil to pure good.
You control your character ⇒ If you can change your thoughts, you can change your character.
You are always in control of your thoughts, even in your worst state ⇒ all it requires is patience, practice, and persistence.
2. Effect of Thought on Circumstance
Think of your mind like a garden ⇒ you can cultivate it or you can let it run wild ⇒ You have a choice: Either 1) remove your useless and immoral thoughts or 2) let them take over.
Your outer life (circumstances) is related to your inner state (character).
You are where you are (circumstances) because your thoughts (character) have brought you there ⇒ (There is no such thing as a chance?)
You are the cause of your circumstances, whether it is conscious or unconscious ⇒ if you explore this through reflection deep enough, you will see the truth of this concept ⇒ This concept can be proven with self-experimentation ⇒ try radically altering your thoughts for a period of time, and see what happens with your circumstances.
“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results.” ⇒ this is a law; cooperate with it.
When you believe your circumstances are the result of outside forces, you are controlled by them.
When you believe your circumstances are the result of your thoughts, you control them.
This requires self-control and intention ⇒ when you alter your mind, you can alter your circumstances.
Improved thoughts = Improved character = Improved circumstances.
Your circumstances flow from your nurtured thoughts ⇒ Thoughts lead to actions which lead to circumstances.
You learn who you are (character) from experiencing both bad circumstances (suffering) and good circumstances (happiness) and how those experiences affect your thoughts.
Your thoughts and actions can be your enslaver or rescuer ⇒ You attract what you think about (fear attracts fear, love attracts love, hate attracts hate)
You only get what you want if it aligns with your thoughts and actions ⇒ If you want to change your circumstances, you must start with your thoughts.
You must make personal sacrifices to change your circumstance. (e.g. If you want to be healthier, you must eat less.)
Suffering is the result of wrong thought ⇒ suffering is a signal that you are out of sync with yourself ⇒ the entire purpose of suffering is to help you realign (or “purify”).
If your thoughts are pure, you cannot suffer.
Mental order leads to happiness; mental disorder leads to suffering (e.g. indigence and indulgence).
You can either complain about your circumstances or use them to aid in your progress.
Thoughts cannot be kept secret ⇒ they reveal themselves in habits that affect circumstances.
Good thoughts turn into good habits which turn into good circumstances. And bad thoughts turn into bad habits which turn into bad circumstances. E.g.
Animalistic thoughts ⇒ bad habits of drinking and sex ⇒ circumstances of disease
Impure thoughts ⇒ draining and confusing habits ⇒ circumstances of distractions and hostility
Thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision ⇒ weak and nervous habits ⇒ circumstances of failure and dependence
Lazy thoughts ⇒ habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty ⇒ circumstances of fifth
Hateful thoughts ⇒ habits of accusation and violence ⇒ circumstances of injury and persecution
Selfish thoughts ⇒ habits of self-seeking ⇒ circumstances of loneliness
You cannot directly choose your circumstances, but you can indirectly shape them by controlling your thoughts ⇒ If you persist with a thought (good or bad), it will always cause a corresponding effect on character and circumstances.
Due to the complexity of circumstance, the depth of thought, and the relativity of happiness, it is very difficult to judge another’s character based on his or her outside circumstances.
3. Effect of Thought on Health and Body
Your thoughts affect your health and body.
Bad thoughts (fear, hate, anxiety) lead to bad health.
Good thoughts (happiness, love, excitement) lead to good health.
4. Thought and Purpose
Aligning your thoughts with a greater purpose is key to intentional accomplishment.
Aimlessness invites bad thoughts ⇒ If you have no core purpose, you can more easily fall prey to petty worries and fears,
You should create a legitimate purpose in your heart and drive towards it.
You should make your purpose the steady focus of your thoughts ⇒ this is the road to self-control and true concentration of thought.
Even if you continually fail to accomplish your purpose (which is required for learning), the strength of your character is the measure of success.
If you cannot handle a greater purpose, make your initial purpose the perfect performance of your daily duties and iterate from there.
Once you have a purpose, create a plan to achieve it and put blinders on ⇒ avoid thoughts of doubt and fear ⇒ they always lead to failure.
When you conquer doubt and fear, you conquer failure.
When you align your thoughts to purpose, creativity emerges.
5. The Thought-Factor in Achievement
Your achievements are the result of your directed thought.
Your weakness and strength are your own. Your circumstance is your own. Your suffering and happiness are your own.
As you think X, you are ⇒ as you continue to think X, you remain.
You cannot be helped by someone stronger unless you are willing to be helped ⇒ and even then, you are responsible for helping yourself ⇒ no one can change your circumstance but you.
When you conquer weakness and selfishness, you are free.
In order to achieve, you must put forth an effort and you must sacrifice ⇒ this requires self-control.
Your achievement is roughly equal to your sacrifices ⇒ Little sacrifice = little success; greater sacrifice = greater success.
Success is not permanent ⇒ it must be maintained by intentional thought ⇒ lazy thoughts will transform success into failure.
6. Visions and Ideals
If you cherish a dream, vision, or ideal in your heart, you will one day realize it.
“Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals.” ⇒ These are your purest thoughts and what you will create your best circumstances from.
The greatest achievements start as dreams.
Want to change your circumstances? Dream up a vision of an ideal life and strive to reach it.
When people observe your success, they will not see the trials and failures and struggles you voluntarily sought out ⇒ they will not know the sacrifices you have made ⇒ they assume it was “chance”, but it wasn’t.
7. Serenity
When you gain wisdom, your mind becomes calmer ⇒ Calmness is indicative of wisdom.
When you master the power of thought, you achieve serenity ⇒ this comes from understanding and accepting the root law of cause and effect in the world ⇒ and applying it to all your thoughts.
When you are calm, you can control yourself ⇒ When you can control yourself, you can adapt yourself to others ⇒ When you can adapt yourself to others, they trust you ⇒ When others trust you, they want to learn from / rely on you.
The calmer you are, the more successful you will be ⇒ humans prefer to deal with even-tempered (reliable) people.
When your thoughts are calm, your circumstances are calm.
When your temper is explosive, your circumstances are explosive.
A serene life is an ultimate goal, but it is rare ⇒ How few people have you met who are well-balanced?
To be wise, you must master negative thoughts ⇒ A truly wise person knows how to control thoughts rising from grief, fear, anxiety, and doubt.
Quotes from the book
“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.”
“Act is the blossom of thought; and joy and suffering are its fruits.”
“Man is made or unmade by himself.”
“Man is the master of thought, the moulder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.”
“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.”
“Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts.”
“The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours; 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 its own.”
“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself”
“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 in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the moulding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world”
“The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of colours, which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts.”
“A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts.”
“As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.”
“Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.”
“He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.”
“A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another.”
“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 confusion of thought a man descends.”
“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.”
“Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.”
“Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know.”
“To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve.”
“Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom."
“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good.
“People will always prefer to deal with a man whose demeanour is strongly equable.”
“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.”
“Only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, makes the winds and the storms of the soul obey him.”
“Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power.”