As a Man Thinketh

James Allen's 1903 essay developing the proposition from Proverbs — "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" — into a compact New Thought manual. Across seven short chapters Allen argues that character, circumstance, health and achievement are the outer expression of habitual thought, that the mind is a garden that may be cultivated or left to weeds, and that mastery of thought is the precondition of every other mastery. The prose is aphoristic and Victorian-moralistic in register.

Allen lived modestly in Ilfracombe and died at 47; the book's afterlife far exceeds its author's lifetime reach. It has remained continuously in print since 1903 and is cited as a direct precursor by Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich, 1937), Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, and Wayne Dyer. Critics in academic religious studies have placed it within the Anglo-American mind-cure milieu of the 1890s–1910s, noting that its ethics of thought-as-cause can shade into victim-blaming when applied to material misfortune.

A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

Chapter 1, "Thought and Character"

First lines

Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes, And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills, Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass: Environment is but his looking-glass.

Contents

Reception

A foundational and continuously-in-print text of the New Thought movement, cited as a primary influence by nearly every major 20th-century self-help author — Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer. Allen lived modestly in Ilfracombe and died at 47; the book's afterlife dwarfs its author's lifetime reach. Critics in academic religious studies have placed it within the broader Anglo-American mind-cure milieu of the 1890s–1910s and noted, fairly, that its ethics of thought-as-cause shades easily into victim-blaming when applied to material misfortune. None of that has touched its standing inside the genre, where it remains a compulsory primary source.

Frequently asked

What is As a Man Thinketh about?

It is James Allen's 1903 essay arguing that habitual thought determines character, circumstance, health, and achievement. Drawing on Proverbs 23:7, Allen uses the metaphor of the mind as a garden — cultivated or left to weeds — to argue that mastery of thought is the precondition of every other mastery.

How long is As a Man Thinketh?

The original text is approximately 8,500 words across seven short chapters plus a brief introduction. Most print editions run between 50 and 70 pages. It is commonly read in a single sitting.

What influence has As a Man Thinketh had on the self-help genre?

It is cited as a direct precursor by Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich, 1937), Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, Tony Robbins, and Wayne Dyer. In a 2003 survey of leading self-help authors, it was the most frequently named inspirational source. It is considered a primary text of the New Thought movement.