82 Quotes by James Allen
James Allen, a thought-provoking British philosophical writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, has etched his legacy through his impactful works that delve into the realms of personal growth and self-mastery. Notably recognized for his influential essay "As a Man Thinketh," Allen's writing reflects his belief in the profound connection between thoughts, character, and life outcomes. His philosophy resonates with the idea that one's inner world shapes their external reality, emphasizing the power of positive thinking and mindful living. Through Allen's eloquent prose, he imparts the wisdom that individuals have the ability to sculpt their destinies by cultivating virtuous thoughts and nurturing their minds. His works stand as timeless guides for those seeking self-improvement and seeking to harness the transformative potential of their thoughts.
James Allen Quotes
No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks. (Meaning)
A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses. (Meaning)
A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.
As the smallest drop of water detached from the ocean contains all the qualities of the ocean, so man, detached in consciousness from the Infinite, contains within him its likeness; and as the drop of water must, by the law of its nature, ultimately find its way back to the ocean and lose itself in its silent depths, so must man, by the unfailing law of his nature, at last return to his source, and lose himself in the great ocean of the Infinite.
Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.
They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pitying, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power evolving universe.
Man, as a spiritual being, cannot be maintained in strength, uprightness, and peace except if he periodically withdraw himself from the outer world of perishable things and reach inwardly towards the abiding and imperishable realities.
A noble and God-like character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with God-like thoughts.
A 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. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
The man who sows wrong thoughts and deeds and prays that God will bless him is in the position of a farmer who, having sown tares, asks God to bring forth for him a harvest of wheat.
Rely upon your own judgment; be true to your own conscience; follow the light that is within you; all outward lights are so many will-o'-the-wisps. There will be those who tell you that you are foolish; that your judgment is faulty; that your conscience is all awry, and that the light within you is darkness; but heed them not.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so shall he be.
A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself.
The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.
A man remains ignorant because he loves ignorance, and chooses ignorant thoughts; a man becomes wise because he loves wisdom and chooses wise thoughts.
Mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.
A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.
Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit.
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his object; and how much more so he who would realize a strong and well-poised life.
Man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild.
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass: environment is but his looking glass.
Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.
There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice. (Meaning)
Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. (Meaning)
As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains. (Meaning)
The man who thinks hateful thoughts brings hatred upon himself. The man who thinks loving thoughts is loved.
A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.
If you real desire is to be good, there is no need to wait for the money before you do it; you can do it now, this very moment, and just where you are.
Let there be nothing within thee that is not very beautiful and very gentle, and there will be nothing without thee that is not beautiful and softened by the spell of thy presence.
Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation.
If you would perfect your body, guard your mind.
You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as you dominant aspiration.
Spiritual meditation is the pathway to Divinity. It is a mystic ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, from error to Truth, from pain to peace.
The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers.
A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved being. For such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result of thought, and as he develops a right understanding, and sees ever more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fuss, fume, worry, and grieve. He remains poised, steadfast, serene.
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; 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.
Cease to be a disobedient child in the school of experience, and begin to learn, with humility and patience, the lessons that are set for your ultimate perfection.
The man who cannot endure to have his errors and shortcomings brought to the surface and made known, but tries to hide them, is unfit to walk the highway of truth.
No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that is his heart which is capable of responding to it.
He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it.
It is a process of diverting one's scattered forces into one powerful channel.
The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed.
The within is ceaselessly becoming the without. From the state of a man's heart doth proceed the conditions of his life; his thoughts blossom into deeds, and his deeds bear the fruitage of character and destiny.
The outer conditions of a person's life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state...
Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. (Meaning)
The very fact that you are a complainer, shows that you deserve your lot.
The more intense the nature of a man, the more readily will he find meditation, and the more successfully will he practice it.
He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
Fixedness of purpose is the root of all successful efforts.
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results … We understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world—although its operation there is just as simple and undeviating— and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.
Fixedness of purpose is the root of all successful efforts.
Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law of his being.
As there are silent depths in the ocean which the fiercest storm cannot reach, so there are silent, holy depths of the hearts of people which the storm of sin and sorrow can never disturb. To reach this silence and to live consciously in it is peace.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them.
As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
And I may stand where health, success, and power Await my coming, if, each fleeting hour I cling to love and patience; and abide With stainlessness; and never step aside From high integrity; so shall I see At last the land of immortality.
To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. (Meaning)
As in the rankest soil the most beautiful flowers are grown, so in the dark soil of poverty the choicest flowers of humanity have developed and bloomed.
Harmony is one phase of the law whose spiritual expression is love.
There can be no progress nor achievement without sacrifice, and a man's worldly success will be by the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance.
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.
The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do.
The dreamers are the saviors of the world. (Meaning)
Happiness is mental harmony; unhappiness is mental inharmony.
Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.
Act is the blossom of thought; and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and biter fruitage of his own husbandry
He who would be useful, strong, and happy must cease to be a passive receptacle for the negative, beggarly, and impure streams of thought.
Thus meditating you will no longer strive to build yourself up in your prejudices, but, forgetting self, you will remember only that you are seeking the Truth.
Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it.
Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.
Act is the blossom of thought; and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and biter fruitage of his own husbandry
He who would be useful, strong, and happy must cease to be a passive receptacle for the negative, beggarly, and impure streams of thought.
Thus meditating you will no longer strive to build yourself up in your prejudices, but, forgetting self, you will remember only that you are seeking the Truth.
Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it.
Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought.
The circumstances which a man encounters with suffering are the result of his own mental inharmony.
When mental energy is allowed to follow the line of least resistance and to fall into easy channels, it is called weakness.
The circumstances which a man encounters with suffering are the result of his own mental inharmony.
Nature gives all, without reservation, and loses nothing; man or woman, grasping all, loses everything.
― James Allen Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
