Quill

Quill / Authors / James Allen quotes

James Allen quotes

James Allen (1864 to 1912) was an English writer, born in Leicester, who left office work to write and settled in Ilfracombe in Devon. Everything Quill quotes from him comes from As a Man Thinketh, a very short book from 1903 that's still widely read.

Allen's argument is that your thoughts make your circumstances. As encouragement, it can get you moving. As an explanation of illness, poverty or bad luck, it goes too far, and it's worth noticing that if you're reading him on a low day.

All 19 of the lines in Quill. Only lines checked against a public-domain text appear on this page.

As a Man Thinketh

Read As a Man Thinketh on Project Gutenberg

Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.
As a Man Thinketh
Read the passage around this line

Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.

A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
As a Man Thinketh
Read the passage around this line

THE aphorism, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," not only embraces the whole of a man's being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

Clean thoughts make clean habits.
As a Man Thinketh
Read the passage around this line

Clean thoughts make clean habits. The so-called saint who does not wash his body is not a saint. He who has strengthened and purified his thoughts does not need to consider the malevolent microbe.

The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do.
As a Man Thinketh
Read the passage around this line

The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.

Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal.
As a Man Thinketh
Read the passage around this line

… 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. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration: in the beautiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis, "You may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the door that for so long has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, …

UNTIL thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.
As a Man Thinketh
Read the passage around this line

UNTIL thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. With the majority the bark of thought is allowed to "drift" upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.

The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good.
As a Man Thinketh
CALMNESS of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.
As a Man Thinketh
Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness.
As a Man Thinketh
Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
As a Man Thinketh
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream.
As a Man Thinketh
The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs.
As a Man Thinketh
Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought.
As a Man Thinketh
Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.
As a Man Thinketh
Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought.
As a Man Thinketh
Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power.
As a Man Thinketh
Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
As a Man Thinketh
Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplished anything, and never can.
As a Man Thinketh
A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it.
As a Man Thinketh

In Quill, a line opens into the passage around it. Free forever for basic widgets and 3 of your own lines. Pro from $2.99 a month, with unlimited lines.

Coming soon to the App Store

Keep reading