Overview
Wattle’s “The Science of Getting Rich” is the work for which he is best remembered, a classic treatise on achieving financial success through the power of positive thinking.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9788835328353 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | E-BOOKARAMA |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2023 |
| Sold by: | StreetLib SRL |
| Format: | eBook |
| Sales rank: | 1,063,822 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Wattles' best known work is a 1910 book called The Science of Getting Rich in which he explained how to become wealthy.
Wattles' daughter, Florence A. Wattles, described her father's life in a "Letter" that was published shortly after his death in the New Thought magazine Nautilus, edited by Elizabeth Towne. The Nautilus had previously carried articles by Wattles in almost every issue, and Towne was also Wattles's book publisher. Florence Wattles wrote that her father was born in the United States in 1860, received little formal education, and found himself excluded from the world of commerce and wealth.
According to the 1880 US Federal Census Wallace was living with his parents on a farm in Nunda Township of McHenry County, Illinois and working as a farm laborer. His father is listed as a gardener with his mother 'keeping house'. Wallace is listed as being born in Illinois while his parents are listed as born in New York. No other siblings are recorded as living with the family.[4] According to the 1910 census Wattles had changed the spelling of his last name from Walters to Wattles, He was married to Abbie Walters 47 at the time, they had 3 children Florence Walters; 22, Russell H Walters; 27, and Agnes Walters; 16. It also shows that at the time Wallace's mother was living with the family Mary A Walters at the age of 79.
Florence wrote that "he made lots of money, and had good health, except for his extreme frailty" in the last three years before his death, Wattles died on February 7, 1911 in Ruskin, Tennessee and his body was transported home for burial to Elwood, Indiana. As a sign of respect businesses closed throughout the town for two hours on the afternoon of his funeral.
His death at age 51 was regarded as "untimely" by his daughter, (even though the average life expectancy for a male born in 1860 in the U.S. was 42) since the previous year he had not only published two books (The Science of Being Well and The Science of Getting Rich), but he had also run for public office
Read an Excerpt
The Science of Getting Rich
By Wallace D. Wattles Top of the Mountain Publishing
Copyright © 1996 Wallace D. Wattles
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781560871385
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.
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 littleif 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.
Continues...
Excerpted from The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles Copyright © 1996 by Wallace D. Wattles. Excerpted by permission.
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