Orison Swett Marden - EVERY MAN A KING

Orison Swett Marden

How To Control Thought and Exercise the Power of Self-Faith Over Others

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2017 OK Publishing

ISBN 978-80-7583-964-0

Chapter I. Steering Thought Prevents Life Wrecks

Chapter II. How Mind Rules The Body

Chapter III. Thought Causes Health And Disease

Chapter IV. Our Worst Enemy Is Fear

Chapter V. Overcoming Fear

Chapter VI. Killing Emotions

Chapter VII. Mastering Our Moods

Chapter VIII. Unprofitable Pessimism

Chapter IX. The Power Of Cheerful Thinking

Chapter X. Negative Creeds Paralyze

Chapter XI. Affirmation Creates Power

Chapter XII. Thoughts Radiate As Influence

Chapter XIII. How Thinking Brings Success

Chapter XIV. Power Of Self-Faith Over Others

Chapter XV. Building Character

Chapter XVI. Strengthening Deficient Faculties

Chapter XVII. Gain Beauty By Holding The Beauty Thought

Chapter XVIII. The Power Of Imagination

Chapter XIX. Don't Let The Years Count

Chapter XX. How To Control Thought

Chapter XXI. The Coming Man Will Realize His Divinity

Table of Contents

We build our future, thought by thought,

Or good or bad, and know it not—

Yet so the universe is wrought.

Thought is another name jor fate,

Choose, then, thy destiny, and wait—

For love brings love, and hate brings hate.

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

A CERTAIN man of no great learning, so runs an old legend, fell heir to a ship. He knew nothing of the sea, nothing of navigation or engineering, but the notion seized him to take a voyage and command his own ship. The ship was gotten under way, the self-appointed captain allowing the crew to go ahead with their usual duties, as the multiplicity of operations confused the amateur navigator. Once headed out to sea, however, the work grew simpler, and the captain had time to observe what was going on. As he strolled on the forward deck, he saw a man turning a big wheel, now this way, now that.

“What in the world is that man doing?” he asked.

“That’s the helmsman. He is steering the ship.”

“Well, I don’t see any use in his fiddling away there all the time. There’s nothing but water ahead, and I guess the sails can push her forward. When there’s land in sight, or a ship coming head on, there’ll be time enough to do steering. Put up all the sails and let her go.”

The order was obeyed, and the few survivors of the wreck that followed had cause to remember the fool captain who thought a ship steered herself.

You say no such man ever existed, and you are right. That isn’t admitting that no such foolishness exists, however. You wouldn’t be so foolish, would you?

Think a moment. Are you not in command of something more delicate, more precious, than any ship—your own life, your own mind? How much attention are you giving to the steering of that mind? Don’t you let it go pretty much as it will? Don’t you let the winds of anger and passion blow it hither and thither? Don’t you let chance friendships, chance reading, and aimless amusement sway your life into forms you never would have deliberately chosen? Are you really captain of your own ship, driving it to a sure harbor of happiness, peace, and success? If you are not, would you not like to become such a master of the situation? It is simpler than you perhaps think, if you will but realize certain fundamental truths and put to work your own better nature. To tell you how, and to direct your efforts is the object of this series of little talks on the use of thought in life-forming.

Considering that mind governs everything in our world, that force has been singularly neglected and misunderstood. Even when tribute has been paid to its power, it has been treated as something unalterable, a tool that could be used if one was born with the genius to do so. Of recent years, the control of thought, and its use to modify character already formed, to change even external surroundings, or at least their effect on one’s self, and to bring about health, happiness, and success, have been more and more studied and understood. The possibilities of thought training are infinite, its consequences eternal, and yet few take the pains to direct their thinking into channels that will do them good, but instead leave all to chance, or rather to the myriad circumstances that buffet and compel our mental action if counter-effort be not made.

There can be no more important study, no higher duty owed to ourselves and those about us, than this of thought-control, of self-control, which results in self-development. Perhaps because thought in itself is intangible, and most of us really have so little control over it, there is an impression that direction of mind action is a difficult and abstruse affair, something that requires hard study, leisure, and book knowledge to accomplish. Nothing is further from the truth. Every person, however ignorant, however uncultured, and however busy, has within himself all that is needful, and has all the time needful, to remake his intellectual nature, his character, and practically his body and his life. Every person will have a different task, different problems to solve, and different results to aim at; but the process is practically the same, and the transformation is no more impossible for one than for another.

A sculptor’s chisel in the hands of a bungler may mar the loveliest statue; in the hands of a criminal it may become a burglar's tool or a murderer’s bludgeon. With the power in our hands to make or mar our natures, what reckless fools we are not to try to know how to produce beauty and harmony, happiness and success. The sculptor dares not strike random blows while gazing away from the marble. With eyes steadfast, he makes every stroke count toward the final result, and that result he has fixed in his mind and in the model he has made after his ideas. We must do likewise in chiselling our characters, forming our environment, making our lives. We must know what we want, know we can get it, and set ourselves directly at the task, never relenting or relaxing in its performance.

The difference between our thought and an ordinary tool is that we must do something with it. We cannot lay it down and say we shall strike no blow. We must think, and every thought is a blow that forges a part of our lives. Let us, therefore, resolutely determine to turn thought to good use, to the best use, and then stiffen our will to carry out that determination.

However earnestly we may set about this important task, life-long habits and set ways of thinking will make it difficult for adults. The great field for work in this direction of thought-control is with the new generation. As M. E. Carter says: “If parents and guardians would devote their energies to teaching the young under their care the lesson of thought-control instead of laying so much stress upon—and enforcing obedience to—external authority, the problem of upbringing the rising generation would be wonderfully simplified, and a much higher order of human beings would soon appear upon this planet. The child taught to hold right thoughts and to expel wrong ones by governing its own mental realm needs less and less external authority, and will grow up pure-minded and truthful because of having nothing to hide, nothing to repress. Mental control is the only self-control, and those who learn it early escape unhappiness and many hard experiences which darken the lives of those who fail to learn that greatest of all life’s lessons.”