Book Review

Book Review – As a Man Thinketh

Author: James Allen
Print Copy | Kindle
It is one of the shortest books I ever read. It is second in the series of books I read on affirmations. When I read online reviews of Secret, everyone bashed the book saying it is all crap and too good to believe.
If the same message of secret has to be read in a compact, concise and classic style of writing, this is the book.
Did I learn something new from the book?
No.
But I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style of the author. It looked like every sentence written in the book was harsh truth. It is one of the well written books I ever read. The words are so concise and to the point. The writing style is so difficult to emulate.One needs to really learned and a great writer to write it in a precise to the point way. The words he used go directly touch your conscience and question your thoughts.
Next time when you have evil or negative thoughts, his words come into your mind. They remind you that you are the creator of your destiny. Do you really want your life to unfold in this path?
If there is one word to summarize the book, it is self-control.
 

Quotes

 

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.

 

Thought and character are one, 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

 
 

That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has for any length of time practised self-control and self-purification, for he will have noticed that the alteration in his circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition.

 
 

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 do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.

 
 

What, then, is the meaning of “fighting against circumstances?” It means that a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart. That cause may take the form of a conscious vice or an unconscious weakness; but whatever it is, it stubbornly retards the efforts of its possessor, and thus calls aloud for remedy.

 
 

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound

 
 

In the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience such judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man may have some admirable virtues, which the other does, not possess; and the honest man obnoxious vices which are absent in the other.

 
 

Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results.

 
 

The circumstances, which a man encounters with suffering, are the result of his own mental in harmony.

 
 

Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used; and the poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed.

 

 
A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer, of the man with his surroundings.

 
 

Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance

 
 

Impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances: thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly, and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence: lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty

 

The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it.

 
Happy thinking in the right way!
 
 
 
 
 

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