James Allen Quotes & Sayings

A noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favour or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harbouring of grovelling thoughts. Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury 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. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master. — James Allen

You are today where your thoughts have brought you;
you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. — James Allen

Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. — James Allen

He who delights in work will not long remain unemployed. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

It is a process of diverting one's scattered forces into one powerful channel. — James Allen

A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses. — James Allen

The circumstances which a man encounters with suffering are the result of his own mental inharmony. — James Allen

Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure. — James Allen

One man is an oppressor because many are slaves; let us despise the slaves. — James Allen

If one endure In purity of thought, joy follows him As his own shadow - sure. — James Allen

Another hidden sacrifice, one of great spiritual beauty and of powerful efficacy in the healing of human sorrows, is the — James Allen

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. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. — James Allen

No man is hindered by another; he is only hindered by himself. No man suffers because of another; he suffers only because of himself. — James Allen

They themselves are makers of themselves. — James Allen

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

We don't get what we wish and pray for, we get what we justly earn. Our wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with our thoughts and actions. — James Allen

Man is made and unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons which will destroy him. He also creates the tools with which he will build for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peach. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and their master. — James Allen

There is an unavoidable tendency to become literally the embodiment of that quality upon which one most constantly thinks. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favour or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harbouring of grovelling thoughts. — James Allen

Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction. — James Allen

A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought-forces upon the object, which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting-point for future power and triumph. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

Thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry. — James Allen

A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of the hidden powers and possibilities within himself. — James Allen

All that you accomplish or fail to accomplish with your life is the direct result of your thoughts. — James Allen

Mind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness. — James Allen

Happiness is mental harmony; unhappiness is mental inharmony. — James Allen

IF YOU WOULD PROTECT YOUR BODY, GUARD YOUR MIND. — James Allen

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. If what they say is true, the sooner you, as a searcher of wisdom, find it out the better, and you can only make that discovery by bringing your powers to the test. Therefore, pursue your course bravely. — James Allen

A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. — James Allen

As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances. — James Allen

Cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and
material things. Mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of
circumstance. — James Allen

Unrest and pain and sorrow are the shadows of life. — James Allen

Think lovingly, speak lovingly, act lovingly, and every need shall be supplied. — James Allen

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 — James Allen

Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts inevitably bring about right results. — James Allen

The very fact that you are a complainer, shows that you deserve your lot. — James Allen

He who would be useful, strong, and happy must cease to be a passive receptacle for the negative, beggarly, and impure streams of thought. — James Allen

All things at last yield to the silent, irresistible, all conquering energy of purpose. — James Allen

What you are, so is your world. — James Allen

The human will, that force unseen, The offspring of a deathless soul, Can hew a way to any goal, Though walls of granite intervene. — James Allen

So you will be... What you 'will' to be — James Allen

Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step. He who has conquered doubt — James Allen

The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err. — James Allen

He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass: environment is but his looking glass. — James Allen

The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, — James Allen

The Temple of Righteousness is built and its four walls are the four Principles - Purity, Wisdom, Compassion, Love. Peace is its roof; its floor Steadfastness, its entrance-door is Selfless Duty, its atmosphere is Inspiration, and its music is the Joy of the perfect. — James Allen

He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly. — James Allen

A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. — James Allen

Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions. — James Allen

Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit. — James Allen

There is but one religion, the religion of Truth. — James Allen

A man remains ignorant because he loves ignorance, and chooses ignorant thoughts; a man becomes wise because he loves wisdom and chooses wise thoughts. — James Allen

Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this in the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep: wake Him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, Peace, be still! — James Allen

He who masters the small becomes the rightful possessor of the great. — James Allen

Do not dwell upon the sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left for living rightly today, and do not think that the sins of yesterday can prevent you from living purely today. — James Allen

There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

The "divinity that shapes our ends" is in ourselves; — James Allen

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. — James Allen

For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now? — James Allen

Having conceived of his purpose, a
man should mentally mark out a
straight pathway to its achievement,
looking neither to the right
or to the left, but straight. — James Allen

Harmony is one phase of the law whose spiritual expression is love. — James Allen

He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish thoughts, belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free. — James Allen

No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that is his heart which is capable of responding to it. — James Allen

Even at birth the soul comes to its own and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity and, impurity, its strength and weakness. Men — James Allen

The truly contented man works energetically and faithfully, and accepts all results with an untroubled spirit. December Second. THERE are three things with which a man should be content: With whatever happens; with his friendships and possessions; and with his pure thoughts. Contented with whatever happens, he will escape grief; with his friendships and possessions, he will avoid anxiety and wretchedness; and with his pure thoughts, he will never go back to suffer and grovel in impurities. There are three with which a man should not be content: With his opinions; with his character; and with his spiritual condition. Not content with his opinions, he will continually increase in intelligence; not content with his character, he will ceaselessly grow in strength and virtue; and not content with his spiritual condition, he will, every day, enter into a larger wisdom and a fuller blessedness. Results exactly correspond with efforts. — James Allen

Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. — James Allen

Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. — James Allen

Achievement of any kind is the crown of effort,the diadem of thought.By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends.By the aid of animality,indolence,impurity,corruption,and confusion of thought a man descends. — James Allen

Humanity surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt only the wise man, only he whose thoughts — James Allen

Nature gives all, without reservation, and loses nothing; man or woman, grasping all, loses everything. — James Allen

And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. — James Allen

The man who thinks hateful thoughts brings hatred upon himself. The man who thinks loving thoughts is loved. — James Allen

Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. — James Allen

Those who cherish a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in their hearts, will one day realize it. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both of suffering and bliss — James Allen

He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. Columbus cherished a vision of another world, and he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision of a multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it; Buddha beheld the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and perfect peace, and he entered into it. — James Allen

You must get outside yourself, and must begin to examine and understand yourself. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

Such is the conscious master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought; which discovery is totally a matter of application, self analysis, and experience. — James Allen

Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance. Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease: 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, which solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary: hateful and condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury and persecution: selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of self-seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less distressing. — James Allen

Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought. — James Allen

if he will watch, control, and alter his thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon his life and circumstances, linking cause and effect by patient practice and investigation, and utilizing his every experience, even to the most trivial, everyday occurrence, as a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself which is Understanding, Wisdom, Power. In — James Allen

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. — James Allen

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. — James Allen

Man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild. — James Allen

Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. — James Allen

Would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly. VISIONS — James Allen

Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The — James Allen