As a Man Thinketh
James Allen · 1903
4.8 · 6 ratings
About the book
Fifty pages that set off a century of self-help: character is thought made visible, and circumstance grows out of it the way a plant grows out of a seed. Allen wrote it in a cottage with almost nothing, which is either the argument against him or the entire point.
Try the short course
Part 1 · One sentence the whole book unpacks. The first six slides, free.
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James Allen builds his whole book on one line from the Book of Proverbs: "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Most people hear it as a pleasant saying about attitude. Allen reads it as a plain statement of fact.
He says the sentence covers the whole of a person's being, and then he pushes it as far as it will go. A man is literally what he thinks. Not influenced by his thoughts, not coloured by them, but made of them.
Every later chapter, on circumstance, health, purpose and calm, is this one sentence followed a little further out. So it is worth sitting with how strong the claim is before anything else, because the rest of the book only works if you let it be that strong.
Inside the course
10 parts- «As a man thinketh»: the sentence the whole book unpacksFree above
- Character as thought, hardened into habit
- The garden, and what Allen means by weeding it
- Circumstance: what your life keeps arranging around you
Questions
Is As a Man Thinketh free to read in Astra Trainer?
Yes. The full book opens free in the app’s reader, in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.
What is the short course?
10 short parts that walk through the book’s key ideas in slides, each with a quick quiz. The first six slides are free to try on this page.
Where do I get the app?
Astra Trainer is free on the App Store and Google Play. As a Man Thinketh is waiting in the app’s library.
