Books, A to Z On 2 of the 12 ideas

As a Man Thinketh

James Allen 1903

2 Echoes

Ideas we have traced through this book

What you think, you become

Echoes

Allen says a man is “literally what he thinks”, his character “the complete sum of all his thoughts”. He credits no one for it, and names Buddha only for a nearby point about vision.

3rd to 1st c. BCE
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.”
Dhammapada. Earliest we can find, more than 1,900 years earlier.
1903
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”

Full text read.

James Allen, As a Man Thinketh.

Project Gutenberg eBook #4507, gutenberg.org/ebooks/4507.

Believe it and it will come

Echoes

Allen writes that whoever cherishes a vision will one day realize it, and that “To desire is to obtain”. He quotes ask and receive without a name and credits no one.

c. 65 to 75 CE
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Gospel of Mark. Earliest we can find, about 1,830 years earlier.
1903
“To desire is to obtain”

Full text read.

James Allen, As a Man Thinketh.

Project Gutenberg eBook #4507, gutenberg.org/ebooks/4507.

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