The Science of Being Great

The third volume in Wallace Wattles's New Thought trilogy (after The Science of Getting Rich and The Science of Being Well), framing personal greatness as the natural result of aligning one's mental images with a benevolent intelligence behind appearances. Structured as numbered principles in the same idiom as the earlier two books, with practices around mental imagery, gratitude, and consistent action toward a chosen ideal.

The twenty-two chapters move from the premise that every person contains a Principle of Power — an innate capacity for growth without limit — through specific practices Wattles calls consecration, identification, and idealization. The book draws on the New Thought tradition's conviction that thought causes material reality, arguing that a person who habitually forms clear mental images of greatness and acts on those images will manifest that greatness. The framework is unfalsifiable by design; Wattles presents it as universal law rather than hypothesis.

First lines

THERE is a Principle of Power in every person. By the intelligent use and direction of this principle, man can develop his own mental faculties. Man has an inherent power by which he may grow in whatsoever direction he pleases, and there does not appear to be any limit to the possibilities of his growth.

Contents

Reception

Smaller commercial footprint than The Science of Getting Rich, which Rhonda Byrne credited as the source-text for The Secret. Continuous-print classic inside New Thought and Law of Attraction circles where it is read as the character-development companion to the wealth-focused Getting Rich. Critics inside academic study of New Thought have flagged the same unfalsifiability problem as Wattles's other books — the framework offers no accountability when the promised results don't materialise.

Frequently asked

What is The Science of Being Great about?

It is the third book in Wallace Wattles's New Thought trilogy. Wattles argues that every person contains a Principle of Power — an innate capacity for unlimited growth — and that personal greatness follows from learning to direct that power through mental imagery, consecration, and consistent action toward a chosen ideal. The twenty-two chapters present the argument as universal principles rather than optional advice.

How does The Science of Being Great differ from The Science of Getting Rich?

The Science of Getting Rich (1910) focuses on financial prosperity through directed thought; The Science of Being Great (1911) aims at character and general human greatness. Both books share the same New Thought framework — the view that sustained mental images cause material outcomes — but the later book is explicitly about becoming a great person rather than a wealthy one. It is the shortest and least commercially known of the three volumes in the trilogy.

Is The Science of Being Great in the public domain?

Yes. Wattles died in February 1911, the same year the book was published, and the work is fully in the public domain. The original text is freely available on the Internet Archive and other public-domain repositories. The Tri-State Press Corporation edition (ISBN 9780932298287) is one of many reprint editions available for purchase.