Think and Grow Rich Quotes

To end my summary of the book, below are 20 of the notable quotes lifted from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. These quotes will help me remember the strong messages on how to turn my desires into riches.

1

One sound idea is all that one needs to achieve success.

2

Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.

3

Remember that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start, and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they “arrive”.

4

Knowledge has no value except that which can be gained from its application toward some worthy end.

5

Successful men, in all calling, never stop acquiring specialized knowledge related to their major purpose, business, or profession.

6

It has been said that man can create anything which he can imagine.

7

Temporary defeat is not permanent failure.

8

Quick riches are more dangerous than poverty.

9

It is one thing to want money – everyone wants more – but it is something entirely different to be worth more!

10

If you are influenced by the opinion of others, you will have no desire of your own.

11

Deeds, and not words, are what counts most.

12

Those who reach decisions promptly and definitely, know what they want, and generally get it.

13

The basis of persistence is the power of will.

14

If one does not possess persistence, one does not achieve noteworthy success in any calling.

15

People refuse to take chances in business because they fear the criticisms which may follow if they fail. The fear of criticism in such case is stronger than the desire for success.

16

Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant persistence.

17

The effect of love endures, because love is spiritual in nature. The man who cannot be stimulated to great heights of achievement by love is hopeless – he is dead, though he may seem alive.

18

If you believe yourself unfortunate, because you have loved and lost, perish the thought. One how has loved truly can never lose entirely. Love is whimsical and temperamental. It comes when it pleases, and goes away without warning. Accept and enjoy it while it remains, but spend no time worrying about its departure. Worry will never bring it back.

19

If you pray for a thing, but have fear as you pray that you may not receive it, or that your prayer will not be acted upon by Infinite Intelligence, your prayer will have been in vain.

20

My experience has taught me that the next best thing to being truly great is to emulate the great, by feeling and action, as nearly as possible.

Act Now

Apply what you have learned from the book Think and Grow Rich with these suggestions:

1. Think positively. Remove negative thoughts that stops you from achieving your goals.
2. Create a plan. Have an idea? It can be your ticket to riches. Create a definite plan to transform that idea into reality. If the plan fails, don’t quit. Create a new one.
3. Gain friends into your Master Mind group. Build a group of like-minded people who can help you in formulating the idea and in putting the plan into action.

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Think and Grow Rich Book Summary
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Napoleon Hill always emphasize the power of positive thinking. If negative thoughts will lead to failure, then positive thinking will lead to success.

Harnessing the Power of Thought

In the book, Think and Grow Rich, Hill has several advice in developing positive thoughts in order to attain riches.

Keep on having positive thoughts. Any positive thoughts will be passed on to your subconsious mind and will eventually translate into its physical equivalent. The person will finally come to believe whatever is being repeated, whether the statement is true or not. Thus, having repeated thoughts about riches will bring riches to the person, while repeated thoughts about poverty will also bring poverty.

Perfection will come through practice. It cannot come by merely reading the instructions.

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

Use the Imagination (Chapter 6). “Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes. Ideas are products of the imagination.” Any idea can be turned into products. The idea can be entirely new and original. Or the idea can be just old concepts, ideas or plans that were combined into something new.

Organized Planning (Chapter 7). Create a definite plan and put it into action right away. If the plan fails, don’t quit. Replace it with a new plan, and another and still another, until the plan succeeds.

A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

Use the Master Mind Principle (Chapter 10). Increase your brain power by connecting with other people who can help in the creation of ideas and in carrying out the plan. Having more people involved will multiply the knowledge and capability compared to doing it alone.

Be persistent (Chapter 9). Don’t give up at the first signs of defeat. The lack of persistence is a weakness common to many. If you find yourself lacking in persistence, this can be fixed by making your desire for riches (or other goals) stronger.

Broadway will give any begger a cup of coffee and sandwich, but it demands persistence of those who go after the big stakes.

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

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Think and Grow Rich Book Summary
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In Part 2, we talked how the attainment of riches starts with the mind. Having a burning desire, coupled with faith and autosuggestion, will help turn our thoughts into reality. Sounds easy, right?

However, not everyone progress from desire into the attainment of riches. If success and riches starts in the mind, then failure and poverty can start in the mind as well. Hill even listed the 31 major causes of failure in Chapter 7.

Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

The Disaster of Negative Thinking

Hill observed that when we feed our subconscious minds with negative thoughts, it will eventually translate into its physical equivalent like misery and failure. To accumulate riches, it is important to stay away from negative thinking.

How? It starts by identifying what these negative thoughts are and its sources. Since these negative thoughts occur in the mind, it is the mind that will eradicate them.

In Chapter 15, Hill listed the Six Ghosts of Fear. You can’t Think and Grow Rich while these fears remain in your mind. All other fears can be grouped into these six basic fears.

The Six Basic Fears

Fear of Poverty. Being poor can cause so much suffering. This is why many people fear poverty. The fear of poverty is the most destructive. It paralyses reason, imagination, and enthusiasm. As a result, there are people who are eager to possess wealth through any manner and method possible.

Fear of Criticism. According to Hill, the effects of this fear to personal achievement is fatal. The fear of criticism “destroys initiative, and discourages the use of imagination.” The sad thing about criticism is that they would even come from people close to us like our parents, friends and relatives. They say things that hurts us even though they might not be aware of it.

Fear of Ill Health. This fear is closely related to the fear of old age and the fear of death. Old age and death are considered to be an “unknown world”. Anything that is unknown to man will be feared at.

Fear of Loss of Love. This is the most painful of all fears. Jealousy and other forms of neurosis grow out of man’s fear of losing someone he loves.

Fear of Old Age. This fear is brought about by the possibility that we will become poor and ill when we grow old. Old age also brings the possibility of losing our physical and economic freedom.

Fear of Death. Hill traces the source of the fear of death to the different religious teachings on death and the eternal punishment that may come in the afterlife.

No one ever is defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

Worry Not

Once fear takes over us, we worry a lot. And when we worry a lot, we loss our capability to reason, to decide and to take initiative. We can’t think properly. If we can’t think, our desires will never progress to riches.

Hill reminds us that “worry is a form of sustained fear caused by indecision; therefore it is a state of mind that can be controlled.”

Hill provides these remedies to our fears.

“Relieve yourself, forever of the fear of death, by reaching a decision to accept death as an inescapable event.

“Whip the fear of poverty by reaching a decision to get along with whatever wealth you can accumulate without worry.

“Put your foot upon the neck of the fear of criticism by reaching a decision not to worry about what other people think, do or say.

“Eliminate the fear of old age by reaching a decision to accept it, not as a handicap, but as a great blessing which carries with it wisdom, self-control, and understanding not known to youth.

“Acquit yourself of the fear of ill health by the decision to forget symptoms.

“Master the fear of loss of love be reaching a decision to get along without love, if that is necessary.”

So subtle and deeply seated is the emotion of fear that one may go through life burdened with it, never recognizing its presence.

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

We have seen how negative thoughts can hinder our attainment of riches. In Part 4, Hill advises us how to surround ourselves with positive thoughts.

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Think and Grow Rich Book Summary
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It all starts in the mind

Napoleon Hill lists DESIRE as the starting point of all achievement. The desire should not be just a wish, or a hope. The desire should be definite! It will then guide you to place all your energy, all your will power, and all your effort to bring the desire to reality.

The state of mind must be belief, not mere hope, or wish.

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

Six ways to Turn Desires into Gold

In Chapter 2, Hill provided six definite, practical steps to turn desire into gold

FIRST: Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire.
SECOND: Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire.
THIRD: Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
FOURTH: Create a definite plan to carry out your desire, and begin at once.
FIFTH: Write out a clear, concise statement of the first to fourth steps.
SIXTH: Read your written statement from the fifth step aloud, twice daily.

Hill mentions that the steps above were given a stamp of approval from Thomas A. Edison, “not only the steps essential for the accumulation of money, but for the attainment of any goal.”

Hill therefore argues that to start getting rich or to start attaining any goal is very easy. The first step of many successful people is having a dream, a hope, a wish, or a desire. The first step requires no hard labor, no sacrifice, even no educational attainment. Thus, anyone can start getting rich.

The Power of the Mind

The title of the book starts with the word Think. Napoleon Hill would emphasize the power of the mind several times in the book. The starting point is desire and the next steps occur in the mind to keep the desire burning.

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

After desire, you need FAITH (Chapter 3). Faith is the believing that you can achieve what you have desired. This occurs in the mind, as well.

Next is AUTOSUGGESTION (Chapter 4). This step influences the subconscious mind so that the conscious mind will act upon your desires. Again, this occurs in the mind.

The other steps are SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE (Chapter 5) and IMAGINATION (Chapter 6). These are still happening in the mind.

Having Specialized Knowledge may mean having good education. But Hill doesn’t agree to the notion that “Knowledge is Power.” According to Hill, “knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into define plans of action and directed to a definite end.”

Therefore, it doesn’t mean that if you have no education or if you are not intelligent, you can never become rich.

Most professors have but little money. They specialize in teaching knowledge, but they do not specialize on the organization, or the use of knowledge.

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

If getting rich starts as easy as having a desire and other faculties of the mind, how come not all people become rich? In Part 3, we will talk about why people fail to attain their goals and desires.

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Think and Grow Rich Book Summary
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Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich ranks among the best selling self-improvement book of all time. First published in 1937, the book continues to inspire millions who aspire for riches. Riches can mean monetary for many, but Hill acknowledges other forms of riches like spiritual, mental and material estates.

Think and Grow Rich is a product of the author’s research and interviews of the richest and most notable men of his time. Among them are Andrew Carnegie, Thomas A. Edison, Henry Ford, Charles M. Schwab, John D. Rockefeller, Woodrow Wilson and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.

The book has some controversial points. I would even question his method of research and his sources. Nonetheless, Hill has plenty of advice for men and women who aims to achieve riches and success.

Think and Grow Rich Takeaways

1. Desire is the starting point of all achievement
2. Put your desires into actions through organized planning
3. Act with Persistence to reach your goals.
4. Fill your mind with positive thoughts, emotions, and attitude.
5. Tap on the power of the Master Mind group

Introduction to Think and Grow Rich

Napoleon Hill has provided 13 Steps to turn your thoughts into riches. Each step is easy to follow and understand. Some steps can be controversial. I think that the others  steps can be skipped. Despite these, the book provide a good baseline to self-improvement. It gives a concrete step on where to start and the values needed to reach your personal goals.

When riches begin to come they come so quickly, in such great abundance, that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years.

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

Below are the 13 Steps to turn your thoughts into riches from the book Think and Grow Rich.

1. Desire – The starting point of all achievement
2. Faith – Visualization of, and Belief in Attainment of Desire
3. Autosuggestion – The Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind
4. Specialized Knowledge – Personal Experiences or Observations
5. Imagination – The Workshop of the Mind
6. Organized Planning – The Crystallization of Desire into Action
7. Decision – The Mastery of Procrastination
8. Persistence – The Sustained Effort Necessary to Induce Faith
9. Power of the Master Mind – The Driving Force
10. The Mastery of Sex Transmutation
11. The Subconscious Mind – The Connecting Link
12. The Brain – A Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought
13. The Sixth Sense – The Door to the Temple of Wisdom

You can follow each step as written by Napoleon Hill. Following all 13 may sound too much but many of the steps are related to each other. After mastering one step, the others will come naturally.

The next parts of my Think and Grow Rich Book Summary, Iwill not discuss each step one by one. Instead, I will impart my key learnings while reading the book. Hopefully, it will help you transform your thoughts into the riches you desire, monetary or otherwise.

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Think and Grow Rich Book Summary
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