James Allen's As a Man Thinketh reminds us that our thoughts control our actions and mold who we are as a person. Good and generous thoughts bring about good and generous actions. Thoughts of greed and covetousness show themselves in selfish and paranoid behavior. Feed your mind on healthful thoughts and happiness and success will follow.

"Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words." Mind is the Master power that molds and makes, And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills, Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: - He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass: Environment is but his looking-glass

Out From The Hart is James Allen's sequel to As a Man Thinketh. In Out From The Hart Allen shows us how to gain self-mastery, and ascend, by successive stages, into a higher and nobler life.

"Confucius said: "The perfecting of one's self is the fundamental base of all progress, and of all moral development." A maxim as profound and compensable as it is simple, practical, and uninvolved, for there is no surer way to knowledge, nor better way to help the world than by perfecting one's self. Nor is there any nobler work or higher science than that of self-perfection. He who studies how to become faultless, who strives to be pure-hearted, who aims at the possession of a calm, wise, and seeing mind, engages in the most sublime task that man can undertake, and the results of which are perceptible in a well ordered, blessed and beautiful life."

James Allen was a British philosophical writer known for his inspirational books and poetry and as a pioneer of self-help movement. Allen's practical philosophy for successful living has awakened millions to the discovery that "they themselves are makers of themselves". Allen insists that it is within the power of each person to form his own character and create his own happiness.