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As a Man Thinketh Summary & Review: Your Thoughts Shape the Week
James Allen’s 1903 essay: why the thought you repeat becomes character, then circumstance — and how one written purpose turns the week.
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James Allen
"The Leicester essayist who made thought the gardener of the week."
James Allen (1864–1912) was an English writer whose short 1903 essay, As a Man Thinketh, became one of the root texts of modern personal development. Born in Leicester, he left school at fifteen after his father was murdered while looking for work in America, and supported his family as a factory knitter and later a private secretary. In his thirties he left office life for the Devon coast and wrote nearly twenty brief books on the inner life. As a Man Thinketh made him famous: a plain argument that the thought you repeat becomes character, then circumstance. Later writers including Napoleon Hill and Norman Vincent Peale treated the essay as a starting point. Allen died at forty-seven in Ilfracombe.
1 book·Classic Personal Development
Books by James Allen
Our in-depth summaries and reviews of his work
Key Ideas & Recurring Themes
Thought is a seed
The sentence you repeat becomes character, then the week you keep calling circumstance.
Purpose is one written aim
A definite purpose is a sentence that can refuse a meeting — not a mood and not an 'and also' list.
Serenity is self-control under heat
Calm is the pause that keeps the aim in charge when the reply wants to spend the afternoon.
Notable Quotes
"A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts."— As a Man Thinketh
"Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself."— As a Man Thinketh
Related Authors
Book Author James Allen
As a Man Thinketh Summary & Review: Your Thoughts Shape the Week
James Allen’s 1903 essay: why the thought you repeat becomes character, then circumstance — and how one written purpose turns the week.