Allen’s book, “As a Man Thinketh” starts out :

“Mind is the Master power that molds 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.”

The book was published in 1903. Allen described it and was the early leader of the many self-help books that followed.  Drawing insight from Proverbs 23:6-8 in the King James version of the Bible, the book focuses on the power of thought.

The book shows how applying the principle is a choice made by each individual and leads to good and bad conditions resulting from those thoughts.

Allen said it was "A book that will help you to help yourself,” "A pocket companion for thoughtful people,” and "A book on the power and proper application of thought.

Quotes

• "Men do not attract what they want, but what they are."

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

• "Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these if you but remain true to them your world will, at last, be built."

• "The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reached the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires– and circumstances are how the soul receives its own." [4]

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

• a thought precedes "Every action and feeling."

• "Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves."

• "Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself."

• "You cannot travel within and stand still without.