James Allen (1864–1912) was a British philosophical writer and a pioneer of the self-help movement. [1] His best-known book, As a Man Thinketh (1903), is only a few dozen pages long, yet it has stayed in print for more than a century and has inspired many later motivational and self-help authors. [1]
Who is James Allen?
James Allen was born on 28 November 1864 in Leicester, England, the elder of two brothers in a working-class family. [1] His father, William, was a factory knitter. When the textile trade in central England went into decline in 1879, William travelled to America to find work and make a new home for the family, but he died in New York soon after arriving. [1]
The loss changed everything for the family. At fifteen, Allen left school and went to work. [1] For much of the 1890s he was a private secretary and stationer at several British manufacturing firms. In 1893 he moved to London and later to South Wales, where he earned his living through journalism and reporting. [1] In South Wales he met Lily Louisa Oram, and the couple married in 1895. [1]
In 1898 Allen found work that matched his spiritual and social interests, writing for the magazine The Herald of the Golden Age. This began a creative period in which he published his first book, From Poverty to Power (1901). [1] In 1902 he started his own spiritual magazine, The Light of Reason, which was later renamed The Epoch. [1]
His third book, As a Man Thinketh, came out in 1903. Its title is loosely based on Proverbs 23:7: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” [1] That same year the family moved to the seaside town of Ilfracombe in Devon. Allen spent the rest of his life there, writing and editing, and produced more than a book a year, 19 works in all. [1]
Allen died in 1912, aged 47. Lily carried on publishing The Epoch and summed up his approach in the preface to one of his posthumous books: “He never wrote theories, or for the sake of writing; but he wrote when he had a message, and it became a message only when he had lived it out in his own life, and knew that it was good.” [1]
His ideas in brief
- Tend your mind. Weed out unhelpful thoughts and plant useful ones.
- Link thought to purpose. Give your thinking a clear aim.
- Hold a vision. Cherish your ideals and work toward them.
- Cultivate calm. Self-control and serenity are strengths.
At a glance
Known for: As a Man Thinketh
Topics: Thought, character, purpose, calm
Era: Late Victorian and Edwardian
Books: As a Man Thinketh, From Poverty to Power, The Mastery of Destiny
Read free: Project Gutenberg
Good fit if
You want a short, reflective classic about how your everyday thoughts shape your character, and you enjoy writing you can reread in one sitting.
Our take
A gentle, poetic little book that many self-help writers still point to as a starting place. Read it slowly, one chapter at a time, and treat its ideas as habits of mind to practise rather than rules to follow.
James Allen’s key ideas
These come from As a Man Thinketh, which is free to read on Project Gutenberg. Tap a card to read more.
A man is what he thinks
The opening chapter sets out the book’s main idea. Allen wrote that the saying “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he” reaches out to every part of a person’s life. [2] “A man is literally what he thinks,” he wrote, “his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.” [2]
He compared thought to a seed: just as a plant springs from a seed, “every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought.” He put it in one short line: “Act is the blossom of thought.” [2]
In his foreword Allen said the book was “suggestive rather than explanatory”. Its aim was to help readers see that “They themselves are makers of themselves” through the thoughts they choose and encourage. [2]
The garden of the mind
Allen’s best-known image is the mind as a garden. “Man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild,” he wrote, adding that either way it will bring something forth. If no useful seeds are planted, weeds will grow instead. [2]
So, he suggested, a person can tend the garden of the mind the way a gardener tends a plot, weeding out useless thoughts and growing useful ones. Doing this, a person “sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.” [2]
Circumstance reveals the man
One of Allen’s most quoted lines is: “Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.” [2]
He encouraged readers to stop blaming outside conditions and to start using them. A person grows, he wrote, when he “ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within himself.” [2]
He also noticed a common pattern: “Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.” [2]
Thought and purpose
Allen believed that thinking without direction drifts. “Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment,” he wrote. [2]
He noticed that people without a clear aim “fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings.” His advice was simple: a person “should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it”, making it “the centralizing point of his thoughts.” [2]
Visions and ideals
In the chapter “Visions and Ideals”, Allen celebrates dreamers. “The dreamers are the saviours of the world,” he begins, naming composers, painters, poets and sages as “the makers of the after-world”. [2]
He urged readers: “Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals.” And he wrote, “Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be.” [2]
He used images from nature to show that big things start small: “The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg.” [2]
Serenity
The book ends with a short chapter on serenity. Allen saw calm as something you build over time through self-control. “The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how to adapt himself to others,” he wrote. [2]
He described a strong, calm person as “like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm.” [2] The book closes with three short sentences that many readers remember: “Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power.” [2]
Like many books of its time, As a Man Thinketh uses confident, sweeping language. Many modern readers take its ideas as invitations to reflect, not as literal laws.
Videos with James Allen
Allen died in 1912, so there is no film of him. These are readings and summaries of As a Man Thinketh, checked one by one.
Start here
Summaries and readings
Full audiobooks
Articles about James Allen
James Allen’s books
His books are in the public domain, so you can read them free on Project Gutenberg or buy modern print editions.
Read free: As a Man Thinketh on Project Gutenberg. [2] [3]
Find his books in your country: US · UK · Canada · Australia · India.
Where to read and listen free
Because his work is in the public domain, it is free to read and hear. Project Gutenberg hosts many of his books, and volunteer readers have recorded audio versions. [3] [1]
Modern print and audio editions are easy to find in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and many other countries, often for under $10.
What the Research Shows
Allen wrote long before modern psychology, but two of his central themes, choosing how you interpret what happens to you and changing yourself through small daily habits of thought, have since been studied by researchers.
- Reframing. People who habitually reframe how they see a situation tend to feel more positive emotion and report better wellbeing. [4]
- Small daily habits. New habits became automatic after an average of 66 days, and missing an occasional day did not derail progress. [5]
Frequently asked questions
Who was James Allen?
A British philosophical writer (1864–1912) and a pioneer of the self-help movement, best known for As a Man Thinketh.
When was As a Man Thinketh published?
In 1903. It was his third book.
Where does the title come from?
It is loosely based on Proverbs 23:7: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
What is the book’s main idea?
That your thoughts shape your character, and that you can tend your mind like a garden.
Where did he live and write?
He spent his last years in Ilfracombe, Devon, writing and editing his magazine The Epoch.
How many books did he write?
Around 19 works, plus more published after his death by his wife Lily.
Is his work free to read?
Yes. It is in the public domain and available on Project Gutenberg.
Sources
- Wikipedia: James Allen (author)
- Project Gutenberg: As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
- Project Gutenberg: Works by James Allen
- Gross and John, Individual Differences in Two Emotion Regulation Processes, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Lally et al., How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world, European Journal of Social Psychology 2010
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