Idea 2 of 12 c. 65 to 75 CE until 2006
If you hold a clear picture of what you want and believe without doubt that it is already yours, it will come to you.
Said again in 4 books. 2 credit a source by name.
You have probably met this advice in a recent book: picture what you want, believe it is already yours, and it will come. The idea is about 2,000 years old. The earliest source we can find is the Gospel of Mark, c. 65-75 CE, at Mark 11:24: “believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” It kept coming back, in As a Man Thinketh in 1903, The Science of Getting Rich in 1910, Think and Grow Rich in 1937 and The Secret in 2006. Wattles credits Jesus for it in 1910, and Allen’s book and the account of Hill’s book we read credit no one that we can find.
Matthew 21:22 and Matthew 7:7 (“Ask, and it shall be given you”) carry the same tradition, but Mark is usually dated the earliest gospel. Mark 11:24 is the earliest source we can find.
Earliest we can find
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Full text read.
Gospel of Mark 11:24, tr. King James Version translators (1611).
Project Gutenberg eBook #30, gutenberg.org/
Nothing from our reading list in between. The gap is ours, not history’s.
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.
“To desire is to obtain”
Full text read.
James Allen, As a Man Thinketh.
Project Gutenberg eBook #4507, gutenberg.org/
Cites Jesus
Wattles asks for a clear picture and unwavering faith that the thing is already yours, and quotes the verse, “believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”, crediting Jesus.
“‘Whatsoever things ye ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them,’ said Jesus.”
Full text read.
Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich.
Project Gutenberg eBook #59844, gutenberg.org/
Echoes, per a summary
Quote Investigator has Hill writing that the mind could produce “anything the mind could conceive and believe”, crediting no one; Edison appears as an example, not as a source.
“The mind could produce anything the mind could conceive and believe”
Secondhand, from Quote Investigator. Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich (1937).
This book is still in copyright, so we read an account of it, not the book.
Quote Investigator: quoteinvestigator.com/
Cites Matthew 21:22, per a summary
Wikipedia has Byrne giving three steps, ask, believe and receive, and ties them to the Bible’s Matthew 21:22, a parallel Gospel verse; whether the attribution is Byrne’s or Wikipedia’s is unclear.
Wikiquote’s account of the book: Ask once, believe you have received, and all you have to do to receive is feel good.
Secondhand, from Wikiquote. Rhonda Byrne, The Secret (2006).
This book is still in copyright, so we read an account of it, not the book.
Wikiquote: en.wikiquote.org/
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/
Still being checked
New evidence came in, the book’s own words as Quote Investigator prints them. The two readers then split, a third found no link, and we hold it back until the evidence settles it.
Still being checked
We have one account of this book that we may read, and it gives its own words, not the book’s. A second account that agrees would bring the link back.
How this page was made. AI agents did the reading. Each link was judged by two readers from different AI models, working blind; a third settled their splits (4 of 4 links on this page needed no tiebreak). Every quote was checked word for word against its source. “Full text read” means the agents read the book itself; “Author’s own words” means the author’s free writing elsewhere; “Secondhand” means a free summary or article about the book.
One idea a week, followed across time.
No. 1Small steps add up