Wallace D. Wattles was an American author. A New Thought writer, he remains personally somewhat obscure, but his writing has been widely quoted and remains in print in the New Thought and self-help movements. Wattles’ best-known work is a 1903 book called The Science of Getting Rich in which he explains how to become wealthy. May his quotes inspire you to be all that you can be and live your dreams.
1. “The grateful mind is constantly fixated upon the best. Therefore it tends to become the best. It takes the form or character from the best, and will receive the best.” Wallace D. Wattles
2. “The intensity of your desire will depend on the clearness with which you picture to yourself what you want to be.” Wallace D. Wattles
3. “You can never become a great man or woman until you have overcome anxiety, worry, and fear. It is impossible for an anxious person, a worried one, or a fearful one to perceive truth; all things are distorted and thrown out of their proper relations by such mental states.” Wallace D. Wattles
4. “No one ever got rich by studying poverty and thinking about poverty.” Wallace D. Wattles
5. “Success is becoming what you want to be, and is attained by applying your energies to your work, and you will apply your energies in exact proportion to the intensity of your desire.” Wallace D. Wattles
6. “Your first duty to God, to yourself, and to the world is to make yourself as great a personality, in every way, as you possibly can.” Wallace D. Wattles
7. “Get rich by the creative method and not by the competitive one.” Wallace D. Wattles
8. “The very best thing you can do for the world is to make the most of yourself.” Wallace D. Wattles
9. “Become aware and recognize fully the fact that the principle of power is within you.” Wallace D. Wattles
10. “You must get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create. Not to compete for what is already created.” Wallace D. Wattles
11. “The purpose of life for man is growth, just as the purpose of life for trees and plants is growth. Trees and plants grow automatically and along fixed lines; man can grow as he will. Trees and plants can only develop certain possibilities and characteristics; man can develop any power which is or has been shown by any person anywhere.” Wallace D. Wattles
12. “Nothing that is possible in spirit is impossible in flesh and blood. Nothing that man can think is impossible. Nothing that man can imagine is impossible of realization.” Wallace D. Wattles
13. “He who fears not has plenty of time.” Wallace D. Wattles
14. “The brain does not make the man; the man makes the brain.” Wallace D. Wattles
15. “By thought, the thing you want is brought to you. By action, you receive it.” Wallace D. Wattles
16. “To exercise some sort of control over others is the secret motive of every selfish person.” Wallace D. Wattles
17. “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” Wallace D. Wattles
18. “Hurry and fear will instantly cut your connect with the universal mind.” Wallace D. Wattles
19. “Abandon everything you have outgrown.” Wallace D. Wattles
20. “There is no such thing as lack of opportunities for the man who is living the advancing life, and who has an advancing mind.” Wallace D. Wattles
21. “Thought is the only power which can produce tangible riches from the formless substance.” Wallace D. Wattles
22. “You can become what you want to be.” Wallace D. Wattles
23. “Begin to do small things in a great way. You must put the whole power of your great soul into every act.” Wallace D. Wattles
24. “A thought is a substance, producing the thing that is imagined by the thought.” Wallace D. Wattles
25. “Greatness is attained only by thinking of great thoughts.” Wallace D. Wattles
26. “The more gratefully we fix our minds on the supreme when good things come to us. The more good things we will receive.” Wallace D. Wattles
27. “Getting rich isn’t about doing certain things. It’s about doing things in the certain way.” Wallace D. Wattles
28. “Wisdom is the essential basis of greatness.” Wallace D. Wattles
29. “Everything that touches your life is an opportunity if you discover its proper use.” Wallace D. Wattles
30. “You can not retain a true and clear vision of wealth if you are constantly turning your attention to opposing pictures, whether they be external or imaginary.” Wallace D. Wattles
31. “While you rest, do not think of your present weakness; think of the strength that is coming.” Wallace D. Wattles
32. “The daily practice of gratitude is one of the conduits by which your wealth will come to you.” Wallace D. Wattles
33. “You are not mentally developed by what you read, but by what you think about what you read.” Wallace D. Wattles
34. “Read only the most optimistic comments on the world’s news; those in harmony with your picture.” Wallace D. Wattles
35. “Give every man more in use value than you take from him in cash value: then you are adding to the life of the world by every business transaction.” Wallace D. Wattles
36. “Never admit the possibility of failure, or speak in a way that infers failure as a possibility.” Wallace D. Wattles
37. “To do things in a way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think: this is the first step toward getting rich.” Wallace D. Wattles
38. “Talk about the happy times you had in your youth, and forget all the unhappy times.” Wallace D. Wattles
39. “It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” Wallace D. Wattles
40. “It is the natural and inherent impulse of life to seek to live more.” Wallace D. Wattles
41. “Do all that you can do in a perfect manner every day, but do it without haste, worry or fear. Go as fast as you can, but never hurry.” Wallace D. Wattles
42. “Success action is cumulative in its results.” Wallace D. Wattles
43. “All you need is to know what you want, and to want it badly enough so that it will stay in your thoughts.” Wallace D. Wattles
44. “You must lay aside your greed; have no unworthy motive in your desire to become rich and powerful.” Wallace D. Wattles
45. “The average person’s idea of a great man, rather than one who serves, is of one who succeeds in getting himself served.” Wallace D. Wattles
46. “Set your ideal as near to perfection as your imagination is capable of forming the conception.” Wallace D. Wattles
47. “An ounce of doing things is worth a pound of theorizing.” Wallace D. Wattles
48. “See just what you want, and get a clear mental picture of it, as you wish it to look when you get it.” Wallace D. Wattles
49. “It is easy to understand that the nearer we live to the source of wealth, the more wealth we shall receive.” Wallace D. Wattles
50. “Success in life is becoming what you want to be.” Wallace D. Wattles
