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- Herausgeber: Musaicum Books
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
Wallace D. Wattles' book, 'The Science of Being Great', is a profound exploration of personal development and the power of positive thinking. Written in a clear and straightforward style, Wattles delves into the principles of success, ambition, and self-improvement. Drawing from both philosophical and practical insights, Wattles presents a comprehensive guide to achieving greatness in all aspects of life, from career to relationships. The book is a timeless classic that continues to inspire readers seeking to unleash their full potential. In the literary context, Wattles' work can be seen as a precursor to the self-help genre, as it focuses on empowering individuals to take control of their destinies through a combination of mindset and action. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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THE SCIENCE OF BEING GREAT
Published by
Books
Table of Contents
Introduction
This book argues that true greatness is not a matter of birth or circumstance, but a disciplined way of thinking and living that anyone can learn. The Science of Being Great by Wallace D. Wattles is a concise work of personal philosophy emerging from the American New Thought tradition of the early twentieth century. Situated within self-help and metaphysical nonfiction, it presents a pragmatic path for cultivating inner power and expressing it ethically in ordinary affairs. Wattles writes in a direct, exhortative voice that favors clarity over ornament and practice over abstraction. For readers, the experience is instructive and motivating, offering a framework for aligning thought, character, and conduct without recourse to esoterica or elaborate systems.
Composed in the United States during the early twentieth century, the book belongs to a period when New Thought authors explored how disciplined thinking and constructive belief could shape conduct and outcomes. Its genre is practical philosophy fused with personal development, and its setting is the reader’s everyday life rather than a narrative world. The publication context reflects a growing appetite for concise manuals that unite moral purpose with practical success. Within this current, Wattles distinguishes himself by keeping theory spare and guidance concrete, addressing workers, professionals, and householders alike. The result is a compact, accessible companion intended to be applied in homes, workplaces, communities, and private moments of decision.
The premise is straightforward yet ambitious: greatness can be systematically developed through ordered thought, purposeful will, and consistent action shaped by high ideals. Instead of presenting a biography or case study, the book unfolds as an instruction manual that speaks directly to the reader, proposing practices to govern attention, elevate motives, and simplify choices. The tone is confident, earnest, and respectful, asking for steady application rather than passive agreement. The style is plainspoken and rhythmic, moving in short, cumulative passages that reinforce central ideas. Across its pages, the reading experience is brisk but reflective, inviting readers to test assertions through daily conduct and to measure progress by inner steadiness and outward usefulness.
Several themes anchor the work. Wattles argues that the creative mindset is superior to a competitive one, not by denying effort but by redirecting it from rivalry to genuine production and service. He contends that character and capability grow together: thought habits cultivate strength, and strength expresses itself as integrity, calmness, and decisiveness. The book frames greatness as inclusive and practical, available across occupations and circumstances, provided one aligns intention, speech, and action. It insists that ethical living is not a luxury but a force multiplier. In this view, moral clarity is not separate from effectiveness; it is the engine that drives it.
The method centers on inner discipline that yields outer poise. Readers are urged to choose a clear purpose, keep attention trained on constructive ends, and act steadily without haste or anxiety. The counsel emphasizes self-command in thought and speech, the habit of seeing possibilities rather than obstacles, and the refusal to be governed by fear or resentment. Its practicality lies in repetition and application: simplify, focus, and persist. The chapters build a pattern that readers can adapt to their contexts, reinforcing the idea that greatness emerges from consistency in small decisions as much as from decisive moments that draw public notice.
This message still matters. In a culture saturated with distraction and metrics, the book restores attention to the interior sources of effectiveness: clarity, composure, and conscience. Its call to a creative, non-zero-sum outlook speaks to leaders, learners, and builders facing complex, interdependent problems. By tying ambition to service and self-mastery, it offers an alternative to burnout and performative hustle. Contemporary readers may recognize echoes of habits they value—focus, resilience, ethical leadership—yet find here an integrated philosophy that places them within a coherent narrative of personal growth and shared good.
Approach this work as a compact course in intentional living. It rewards slow reading, note-taking, and deliberate experimentation, allowing its principles to migrate from the page into speech, schedules, and relationships. Expect not a catalog of tricks, but a coherent standard by which to think clearly, choose cleanly, and act decisively. As a guide to aligning belief, purpose, and behavior, The Science of Being Great endures because it reframes success as the expression of character through useful service. Read it to cultivate steadiness amid noise, to aim high without hostility, and to become strong in ways that benefit others.
Synopsis
Wallace D. Wattles’s The Science of Being Great, a New Thought work from the early twentieth century, presents a systematic argument that personal greatness is a practical attainment available to any individual. The book sets aside biography and storytelling, advancing a method that blends metaphysical premises with behavioral guidance. Wattles outlines a vision of human potential anchored in mental discipline and ethical conduct, insisting that greatness is not a matter of chance or privilege but a reproducible outcome of right thinking and action. His aim is to give readers a structured pathway for cultivating character and influence without relying on external circumstances or inherited position.
The argument begins with a metaphysical foundation: reality, Wattles proposes, is grounded in an intelligent, creative presence that permeates all life. Each person participates in this universal intelligence and can draw upon it deliberately. Greatness is therefore not a special endowment but the conscious expression of a universal power. From this premise, the book frames thought as causative, urging readers to reject mental images of weakness and instability. The central claim is that aligning one’s inner life with a constructive, expansive ideal steadily transforms character, capability, and outward conditions in ways consistent with that ideal.
Wattles then turns to the discipline of mind. He emphasizes sustained attention to a chosen ideal of self, a steady refusal to indulge self-deprecating or resentful thoughts, and a practice of confidence grounded in one’s unity with a higher source. The mental work is neither daydreaming nor self-flattery; it is a deliberate selection of thoughts that reinforce poise, courage, and purpose. By persistently holding to this internal pattern, the individual reshapes habits, emotive responses, and decision-making. The cultivation of calm assurance becomes a central instrument, supporting clear judgment and making one less reactive to provocations or setbacks.
From mental discipline, the book moves to the role of will and action. Wattles advises using will upon oneself rather than attempting to control others, shaping conduct to match the inner ideal. He recommends decisive, orderly effort in the present, avoiding hurried strain or hesitant delay. Greatness, in his account, grows through consistent right action—work performed thoroughly, opportunities recognized without anxiety, and responsibilities met without complaint. This approach links inner conviction to outward efficiency: the steadier the mind, the more effective the action, and the more readily circumstances appear to cooperate with one’s constructive aims.
Interpersonal conduct receives sustained attention. Wattles argues that recognizing the same creative life in others leads to respect, generosity, and fairness. Instead of rivalry or denunciation, he advocates a creative stance that adds value and invites cooperation. Criticism, envy, and domineering behavior are treated as signs of weakness that dissipate power and provoke resistance. The great person, he suggests, advances by uplifting situations and people, not by diminishing them. This posture builds credibility and magnetism, allowing influence to arise naturally from character rather than from force, argument, or outward signs of authority.
The text addresses common obstacles—fear, doubt, discouragement, and the temptation to imitate rather than originate. Wattles contends that conditions, while real, need not determine character. By acting where one is, with available means, and maintaining inner composure, the individual transforms constraints into training. He stresses steadiness over sensational breakthroughs, improvement over display, and growth over comparison. Physical habits, speech, and daily routines are treated as extensions of the inner program, making greatness a comprehensive practice rather than a single achievement. The consistent theme is integration: thought, will, and deed aligned to a constructive center.
In closing, Wattles presents greatness as an attainable mode of living that harmonizes aspiration with service and self-mastery with practical effectiveness. The book’s significance lies in reframing personal development as a disciplined, ethical, and spiritual practice grounded in a unifying view of reality. Without relying on esoteric techniques or social advantages, it argues for a steady method that has influenced later self-help and motivational literature. Its enduring resonance comes from the promise that a person, by cultivating clear thought and principled action, can expand capacity, contribute meaningfully, and move through life with quiet authority and purpose.
Historical Context
Wallace D. Wattles wrote The Science of Being Great in the United States during the Progressive Era, around 1910, when rapid industrialization, urban migration, and expanding mass education reshaped daily life. Giant trusts dominated steel, oil, and railroads, while reformers pushed antitrust regulation, workplace safety, and social welfare. Cheap print, national mail delivery, and subscription networks spread new ideas quickly. Chautauqua assemblies and lecture circuits popularized adult self-improvement. In this climate, readers sought practical guidance for advancement that promised ethical uplift as well as material success, a demand that framed the audience and expectations for Wattles's concise, prescriptive manifesto.
His book emerged from the American New Thought milieu, a loose network of churches, lecturers, and publishing houses that taught mental causation and affirmative prayer. New Thought drew on earlier 'mind cure' figures such as Phineas P. Quimby and developed alongside, but distinct from, Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science. By the 1890s and 1900s it had dedicated periodicals, notably Elizabeth Towne's The Nautilus (founded 1898 in Holyoke, Massachusetts), and congregations such as the Unity School of Christianity in Kansas City. Wattles published with Towne's press, positioning his work within a nationally connected, metaphysical self-help marketplace.
Turn-of-the-century readers were steeped in a booming success-literature industry. Orison Swett Marden launched Success magazine in 1897 and issued prescriptive bestsellers; Russell Conwell's endlessly repeated 'Acres of Diamonds' lecture promised opportunity at home; and Andrew Carnegie's 1889 'Gospel of Wealth' framed elite philanthropy as a social duty. Mail-order lessons and correspondence schools brought vocational and motivational instruction to small towns. Wattles wrote into this crowded field, but, following New Thought conventions, emphasized inner discipline and mental method over mere conventional etiquette or external networking, aligning personal advancement with character cultivation rather than the aggressive competition celebrated by some Gilded Age narratives.
Claims to scientific authority powerfully shaped public discourse. The new psychology gained visibility through laboratories, journals, and William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), which examined conversion, healing, and pragmatism without dismissing them outright. Popular writers such as Thomson Jay Hudson (The Law of Psychic Phenomena, 1893) supplied quasi-scientific models of the conscious and subconscious mind. In business, Frederick Winslow Taylor's systematizing zeal culminated in The Principles of Scientific Management (1911). New Thought authors adopted this vocabulary of 'law', 'method', and experiment, presenting inner discipline and affirmative thinking as repeatable processes rather than merely inspirational exhortations.
Economic volatility also primed readers for mind-over-matter creeds. The severe Panic of 1893 and the financial crisis of 1907 produced bank failures, unemployment, and anxiety about opportunity in an economy dominated by corporations. Reform currents ranged from antitrust prosecutions under Theodore Roosevelt to the Social Gospel, articulated by Walter Rauschenbusch in 1907. The Socialist Party of America, founded in 1901, gained visibility through organizing and national campaigns by Eugene V. Debs. Wattles participated in Socialist Party politics in Indiana, and his writings combine a call for personal mastery with an ethical critique of scarcity thinking and zero-sum competition.
Wattles (1860-1911) was born in Illinois and spent much of his adult life in the Midwest. He worked in various occupations before turning to writing and lecturing on New Thought. The Science of Being Great appeared in 1910 with the Elizabeth Towne Company in Holyoke, Massachusetts, alongside companion volumes such as The Science of Getting Rich. He contributed articles to Towne's periodical The Nautilus, which promoted metaphysical healing and prosperity teachings. His late-life productivity, followed soon by his death, helped fix these concise manuals as accessible statements of New Thought practice for a broad national readership beyond metropolitan centers.
Religious experimentation and liberal Protestant currents supplied additional context. The 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago broadened American exposure to comparative religion, while Emersonian Transcendentalism's legacy encouraged belief in an immanent, benign order. New Thought groups such as Unity emphasized affirmative prayer and healing without demanding creedal conformity, appealing to readers who retained biblical language yet sought practical methods. Clergy and lay reformers linked personal transformation to social responsibility, a theme echoed across Social Gospel sermons and settlement-house initiatives. Wattles's synthesis of moral exhortation and mental discipline fit comfortably within these interlocking streams of religious innovation and civic uplift.
The Science of Being Great thus reflects its era's confidence in progress and method while critiquing the waste and anxiety of a competitive order. Its language of law, practice, and service channels Progressive trust in disciplined improvement; its insistence on interior causation and purposeful thought aligns with New Thought therapeutics; and its ethical tone resonates with contemporary reform preaching. Positioned between business advice and metaphysical tract, the book offered a modern, American program for self-culture that promised effectiveness without sectarian dogma. In doing so, it distilled, and gently challenged, the priorities of early twentieth-century industrial, religious, and intellectual life.
THE SCIENCE OF BEING GREAT
Any Person May Become Great
THERE is a Principle of Power in every person[1q]. By the intelligent use and direction of this principle, man can develop his own mental faculties. Man has an inherent power by which he may grow in whatsoever direction he pleases, and there does not appear to be any limit to the possibilities of his growth. No man has yet become so great in any faculty but that it is possible for someone else to become greater. The possibility is in the Original Substance from which man is made. Genius is Omniscience flowing into man.
Genius is more than talent. Talent may merely be one faculty developed out of proportion to other faculties, but genius is the union of man and God in the acts of the soul. Great men are always greater than their deeds. They are in connection with a reserve of power that is without limit. We do not know where the boundary of the mental powers of man is; we do not even know that there is a boundary.
The power of conscious growth is not given to the lower animals; it is mans alone and may be developed and increased by him. The lower animals can, to a great extent, be trained and developed by man; but man can train and develop himself. He alone has this power, and he has it to an apparently unlimited extent.
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. Nothing that is possible in spirit is impossible in flesh and blood. Nothing that man can think is impossible-in action. Nothing that man can imagine is impossible of realization.
Man is formed for growth, and he is under the necessity of growing.
It is essential to his happiness that he should continuously advance.
Life without progress becomes unendurable, and the person who ceases from growth must either become imbecile or insane. The greater and more harmonious and well rounded his growth, the happier man will be.
