As a Man Thinketh

About This Book

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.

As A Man Thinketh was Allen’s second book. Despite its subsequent popularity he was dissatisfied with it. Even though it was his most concise and eloquent work, the book that best embodied his thought, he somehow failed to recognize its value. His wife Lily had to persuade him to publish it.

James Allen strove to live the ideal life described by Russia’s great novelist and mystic Count Leo Tolstoy – the life of voluntary poverty, manual labor and ascetic self-discipline. Like Tolstoy, Allen sought to improve himself, be happy, and master all of the virtues.

Allen’s work embodies the influence of Protestant liberalism on the one hand and of Buddhist thought on the other. For example, the Buddha teaches, All that we are is the result of what we have thought. Allen’s Biblical text says, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Allen insists upon the power of the individual to form his own character and to create his own happiness. Thought and character are one, he says, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state.

The works of James Allen are eminently practical. He never wrote theories, or for the sake of writing, or to add another to the existing books. According to his wife, Allen wrote when he had a message, and it became a message only when he had lived it in his own life, and knew that it was good. Thus he wrote facts, which he had proven by practice.

About the Author

James Allen’s inspirational writings have influenced millions and yet he remains relatively unknown.

He believed in the power of thought, although James Allen never gained fame or fortune. That much is true. His was a quiet, unrewarded genius. He seldom made enough money from his writings to cover expenses.

Allen was born in 1864 in Leicester, England. Due to his father’s untimely death, he was forced to leave school at fifteen. He worked as a private secretary for several British manufacturers until 1902, when he decided to devote all his time to writing.

Allen teaches two essential truths: today we are where our thoughts have taken us, and we are the architects – for better or worse – of our futures.

His literary career lasted only nine years, until his death in 1912. During that period he wrote nineteen books that have inspired generations.

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