Tuesday, February 03, 2009


Some great words by the author James Allen his book which was published in 1902 ” As a man thinketh”
It may seem long, but give it a read, you will be glad you did.

VISIONS AND IDEALS

He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. Columbus cherished a vision of another world, and he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision of a multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it; Buddha beheld the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and perfect peace, and he entered into it.

Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all, heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.

To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve. Shall man's basest desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the Law: such a condition of things can never obtain: "ask and receive."

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.

Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still _without._

And you, too, will realize the Vision (not 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:
The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, "How lucky he is!"
Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim, "How highly favoured he is!" And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, "How chance aids him at every turn!" They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the
Vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it "luck". They do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it "good fortune," do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it chance.
In all human affairs there are _efforts,_ and there are _results,_ and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result.
Chance is not. Gifts, powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized.
The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart--this you will build your life by, this you will become.

10 comments:

Tom said...

Inspiring artwork and words, Stephen! Great post, I'll have to track down this book and read it through.

Craig Harris said...

Great words Stephen, good food for thought. Great drawings as well, been a fan for a long time!!

Thanks for sharing so much of your work with us.

Lalena said...

I will look for this book at the used book store tomorrow.

Have you read The Prophet, by Khalil Gibran, yet?

stephen Silver said...

I have not read that book yet. Also you can find the book i mentioned on the web and download it for free.

Alex Deligiannis said...

"for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love."

It can be a sobering thought to find where your heart really lies. This was a good read, Stephen. And I really love the faces!

Unknown said...

These characters are WONDERFUL!

Unknown said...

Thank you very much for this post Mr. Silver. I will bookmark and save it to read when discouragement gets the better of me.

Frankie Stellato said...

Fantastic post Stephen! Very inspirational motivating stuff! Thanks for sharing!

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