As a Man Thinketh

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As a Man Thinketh is a literary work of James Allen, published in 1902. The title is influenced by a verse in the Bible from the book of Proverbs chapter 23 verse 7, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”

However, this is both a misquotation and taken out of context. The full passage, taken from the King James Version, is as follows:

"Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words."

The passage seems to suggest that one should consider the true motivations of a person who is being uncharacteristically generous before accepting his generosity - a far cry from Allen's extrapolations.

It is now in the public domain within the United States and most other countries. It was released the 1st of October 2003 as a Project Gutenberg eText edition.

This book is written in terms of responsibility assumption.

The lyrics to the song Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts by Funkadelic are loosely based on this book.

The book opens with the statement:

Mind is the Master power that moulds 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.

Chapter 1 starts with the quote from Dhammapada where effect of karmas is explained.

[edit] Quotes From As a Man Thinketh

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 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.
Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought.
Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves.
If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.