Wallace Wattles
Download a free copy of The Science of Getting Rich from our Download section.
“Abundance is calling you!” Thoughts from Wallace D. Wattles (1910)
Can you imagine that you have the RIGHT to be rich? Most people find it difficult to accept this idea. They have been brainwashed from childhood with negative thoughts about money and their ability to become rich. We have all heard sayings like:
- Money doesn’t grow on trees.
- Do you think I am made of money?
- We can’t afford it.
- You have to work hard for money.
- Money is the root of all evil.
These concepts, repeated over and over again, sink into our subconscious minds and become the paradigm of money and wealth. In fact, these ideas are transformed into self-limiting beliefs. Just like a stoplight, they prevent us from moving forward and becoming rich.
A century ago, Wallace D. Wattles wrote a short book, which changed the way new thinkers viewed money and abundance. Let’s take a look at what he had to say.
A Summary of The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles
There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.
A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.
A person can form things in his thought, and by impressing his thought upon formless substance can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.
A person must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; otherwise he cannot be in harmony with formless intelligence, which is always creative and never competitive in spirit.
A person may come into full harmony with the formless substance by entertaining a lively and sincere gratitude for the blessings it bestows upon him.
A person must form a clear and definite mental image of the things he wishes to have, to do, or to become, and he must hold this mental image in his thoughts, while being deeply grateful to the supreme that all his desires are granted to him.
The creative energy works through the established channels of natural growth, and of the industrial and social order.
A person must be in action in a way that causes him to more than fill his present place, in order to receive his own when it is ready to come to him.
A person, who practices the foregoing instructions, will certainly get rich, and the riches received will be in exact proportion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of their purpose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of their gratitude.
From Chapter 1: The Right to Be Rich
Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No one can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money, for to unfold the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with.
A person develops in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so organized that man must have money in order to become the possessor of things. Therefore, the basis of all advancement must be the science of getting rich. The object of all life is development, and everything that lives has an inalienable right to all the development it is capable of attaining.
A person’s right to life means his right to have the free and unrestricted use of all the things which may be necessary to his fullest mental, spiritual, and physical unfoldment; or, in other words, his right to be rich.
In this book, I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way. To be really rich does not mean to be satisfied or contented with a little. No one ought to be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more.
The purpose of nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life, and everyone should have all that can contribute to the power, elegance, beauty, and richness of life. To be content with less is sinful.
The person who owns all he wants for the living of all the life he is capable of living is rich, and no person who has not plenty of money can have all he wants. Life has advanced so far and become so complex that even the most ordinary man or woman requires a great amount of wealth in order to live in a manner that even approaches completeness.
Every person naturally wants to become all that they are capable of becoming. This desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature; we cannot help wanting to be all that we can be. Success in life is becoming what you want to be.
You can become what you want to be only by making use of things, and you can have the free use of things only as you become rich enough to buy them. To understand the science of getting rich is therefore the most essential of all knowledge.
There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more abundant life — and that desire is praiseworthy. The person who does not desire to live more abundantly is abnormal, and so the person who does not desire to have money enough to buy all he wants is abnormal.
For more information on the life of Mr. Wattles, please see: