The Science of Getting Rich

by Wallace D. Wattles

Overview

As featured in the bestselling book The Secret, here is the landmark guide to wealth creation republished with the classic essay “How to Get What You Want.” Wallace D. Wattles spent a lifetime considering the laws of success as he found them in the work of the world’s great philosophers. He then turned his life effort into this simple, slender book – a volume that he vowed could replace libraries of philosophy, spirituality, and self-help for the purpose of attaining one definite goal: a life of prosperity. Wattles describes a definite science of wealth attraction, built on the foundation of one commanding idea: “There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made…A thought, in this substance, produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.” In his seventeen short, straight-to-the-point chapters, Wattles shows how to use this idea, how to overcome barriers to its application, and how work with very direct methods that awaken it in your life. He further explains how creation and not competition is the hidden key to wealth attraction, and how your power to get rich uplifts everyone around you. The Science of Getting Rich concludes with Wattle’s rare essay “How to Get Want You Want” – a brilliant refresher of his laws of wealth creation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781585426010
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/19/2007
Edition description:	New
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	17,557
Product dimensions:	4.98(w) x 7.09(h) x 0.45(d)
Age Range:	18 - 13 Years

About the Author

Born in 1860 in the United States, Wallace D. Wattles popularized New Thought principles in his ground-breaking classics The Science of Getting Rich, The Science of Being Great, and The Science of Being Well. A great influence on future generations of success writers, he died in 1911.

Read an Excerpt

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 person can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money. In order 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.

People develop in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so organized that people must have money in order to become the possessor of things. Therefore, the basis of all human advancement must be the science of getting rich.

The object of all life is development. 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 unfolding—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 person ought to be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of nature is the advancement and development of life. Every individual should have all that can contribute to the power, elegance, beauty, and richness of life.

The person who owns all he wants for the living of all the life he is capable of living is rich. Nobody can have all he wants without plenty of money. 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 he is capable of becoming; this desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature. 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. Therefore, an understanding of the science of getting rich is 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 uncommon. And the individual who does not desire to have money enough to buy all he wants may not be living to his full potential.

There are three motives for which we live: we live for the body, the mind, and the soul. No one of these is better or holier than the other. Each is desirable, and neither body, mind, or soul can live fully if one of the others is cut short of full life and expression. It is not right or noble to live only for the soul and deny mind or body. It is wrong to live for the intellect and deny body and soul.

We are all acquainted with the loathsome consequences of living for the body and denying both mind and soul. We see that real life means the complete expression of all that a person can give forth through body, mind, and soul. No person can be really happy or satisfied unless his body is living fully in every function and unless the same is true of his mind and his soul. Wherever there is an unexpressed possibility or an unperformed function, there is an unsatisfied desire. Desire is possibility seeking expression or function seeking performance.

A person cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, warm shelter, and freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary to his physical life. He cannot live fully in mind without books and time to study them, without opportunity for travel and observation, or without intellectual companionship. To live fully in mind he must have intellectual recreations and must surround himself with all the objects of art and beauty he is capable of using and appreciating.

To live fully in soul, an individual must have love. And the expression of love is often frustrated by poverty.= An individual’s highest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves. Love finds its most natural and spontaneous expression in giving. The person who has nothing to give cannot fill his place as a husband or father, as a citizen, or as a human being. It is in the use of material things, that a person finds full life for his body, develops his mind, and unfolds his soul. It is therefore of supreme importance to be rich.

It is perfectly right that you should desire to be rich. If you are a normal man or woman you cannot help doing so. It is perfectly right that you should give your best attention to the science of getting rich because it is the noblest and most necessary of all studies. If you neglect this study, you are derelict in your duty to yourself, to God, and to humanity. You can render God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.

Table of Contents

The Table of Contents is as follows:

PREFACE 3

CHAPTER 1 THE RIGHT TO BE RICH 3

CHAPTER 2 THERE IS A SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH 4

CHAPTER 3 IS OPPORTUNITY MONOPOLIZED? 6

CHAPTER 4 THE FIRST PRINCIPLE IN THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH 8

CHAPTER 5 INCREASING LIFE 10

CHAPTER 6 HOW RICHES COME TO YOU 12

CHAPTER 7 GRATITUDE 14

CHAPTER 8 THINKING IN THE CERTAIN WAY 16

CHAPTER 9 HOW TO USE THE WILL 18

CHAPTER 10 FURTHER USE OF THE WILL 20

CHAPTER 11 ACTING IN THE CERTAIN WAY 22

CHAPTER 12 EFFICIENT ACTION 24

CHAPTER 13 GETTING INTO THE RIGHT BUSINESS 26

CHAPTER 14 THE IMPRESSION OF INCREASE 28

CHAPTER 15 THE ADVANCING MAN 29

CHAPTER 16 SOME CAUTIONS, AND CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 31

CHAPTER 17 SUMMARY OF THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH 33

What People are Saying About This

Rahasya Poe

"If you watched The Secret and wondered what the little book was that changed author Rhonda Byrne's life, this is it. Originally published in 1910, its time has come.

Anna Jedrziewski

"Perhaps the most important thing that separates Wattles' success strategy from many other systems is his emphasis on spiritual philosophy rather than self interest.

Editorial Reviews

". . . Wattles identified financial success as the critical element, and first priority, in creating an environment in which one could grow in wealth, wisdom, and happiness. . . . the foundation of today's widespread success and prosperity movements."

Joint Forces Journal

"Perhaps the most important thing that separates Wattles' success strategy from many other systems is his emphasis on spiritual philosophy rather than self interest."

Anna Jedrziewski

"If you watched The Secret and wondered what the little book was that changed author Rhonda Byrne's life, this is it. Originally published in 1910, its time has come."

Rahasya Poe

Wattles offers techniques for getting in tune with one’s deeper self and thus creating a channel of communication between oneself and universal energy. His is a gentle philosophy that excludes competition, cheating, and lording it over one’s fellows when one has made it, and encourages cooperation.

Publisher’s Weekly

Wattles offers techniques for getting in tune with one’s deeper self and thus creating a channel of communication between oneself and universal energy. His is a gentle philosophy that excludes competition, cheating, and lording it over one’s fellows when one has made it, and encourages cooperation.”

"If you watched The Secret and wondered what the little book was that changed author Rhonda Byrne's life, this is it. Originally published in 1910, its time has come."

"Perhaps the most important thing that separates Wattles' success strategy from many other systems is his emphasis on spiritual philosophy rather than self interest."

". . . Wattles identified financial success as the critical element, and first priority, in creating an environment in which one could grow in wealth, wisdom, and happiness. . . . the foundation of today's widespread success and prosperity movements."

From the Publisher