"People blame their environment. There is only one person to blame - and only one - themselves." -- Robert Collier
Robert Collier (April 19, 1885 – 1950) was an author of self help, and New Thought metaphysical books in the 20th century.
Collier was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 19, 1885. He was the nephew of Peter Fenelon Collier, founder of Collier's Weekly. He was involved in writing, editing, and research for most of his life. His book, The Secret of the Ages, sold over 300,000 copies during his life. Collier wrote about the practical psychology of abundance, desire, faith, visualization, confident action, and becoming your best.
Robert Collier Publications, Inc., still exists through the efforts of his widow and now his children and grandchildren and now even his great grandchildren. Collier's Books have recently been brought back to prominence from being referenced in the popular metaphysical movie The Secret. Moreover, Robert Collier's books have been popular with self help and New thought.
After overcoming an illness he became fascinated with the power of the mind and how to use it to create success in every area.
"All motion is cyclic. It circulates to the limits of its possibilities and then returns to its starting point.""All riches have their origin in mind. Wealth is in ideas - not money.""Any thought that is passed on to the subconscious often enough and convincingly enough is finally accepted.""As fast as each opportunity presents itself, use it! No matter how tiny an opportunity it may be, use it!""Constant repetition carries conviction.""Every contrivance of man, every tool, every instrument, every utensil, every article designed for use, of each and every kind, evolved from a very simple beginnings.""Faith is the confidence, the assurance, the enforcing truth, the knowing.""If you don't make things happen then things will happen to you.""If you procrastinate when faced with a big difficult problem... break the problem into parts, and handle one part at a time.""If you see yourself as prosperous, you will be. If you see yourself as continually hard up, that is exactly what you will be.""In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time.""It is your work to clear away the mass of encumbering material of thoughts, so that you may bring into plain view the precious thing at the center of the mass.""It sometimes seems that we have only to love a thing greatly to get it.""Make every thought, every fact, that comes into your mind pay you a profit. Make it work and produce for you. Think of things not as they are but as they might be. Don't merely dream - but create!""Make your mold. The best flux in the world will not make a usable shape unless you have a mold to pour it in.""Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement - and we will make the goal.""One comes to believe whatever one repeats to oneself sufficiently often, whether the statement be true of false. It comes to be dominating thought in one's mind.""One might as well try to ride two horses moving in different directions, as to try to maintain in equal force two opposing or contradictory sets of desires.""Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives.""Pictures help you to form the mental mold.""Plant the seed of desire in your mind and it forms a nucleus with power to attract to itself everything needed for its fulfillment.""Playing safe is probably the most unsafe thing in the world. You cannot stand still. You must go forward.""See the things you want as already yours. Think of them as yours, as belonging to you, as already in your possession.""See things as you would have them be instead of as they are.""Start where you are. Distant fields always look greener, but opportunity lies right where you are. Take advantage of every opportunity of service.""Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out.""Supply always comes on the heels of demand.""Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is startled, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance.""The first essentials, of course, is to know what you want.""The first principle of success is desire - knowing what you want. Desire is the planting of your seed.""The source and center of all man's creative power... is his power of making images, or the power of imagination.""There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. That little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.""Vision - It reaches beyond the thing that is, into the conception of what can be. Imagination gives you the picture. Vision gives you the impulse to make the picture your own.""Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blue print, and begin to build.""You can do anything you think you can. This knowledge is literally the gift of the gods, for through it you can solve every human problem. It should make of you an incurable optimist. It is the open door.""You cannot hold on to anything good. You must be continually giving - and getting. You cannot hold on to your seed. You must sow it - and reap anew. You cannot hold on to riches. You must use them and get other riches in return.""You have to sow before you can reap. You have to give before you can get.""Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself.""Your real self - the "I am I" - is master of this land, the ruler of this empire. You rightfully have power and dominion over it, all its inhabitants, and all contained in its realm."
"You must intensify and render continuous by repeatedly presenting with suggestive ideas and mental pictures of the feast of good things, and the flowing fountain, which awaits the successful achievement or attainment of the desires."
"The first principle of success is desire--knowing what you want. Desire is the planting of your seed. Very few persons, comparatively, know how to Desire with sufficient intensity. They do not know what it is to feel and manifest that intense, eager, longing, craving, insistent, demanding, ravenous Desire which is akin to the persistent, insistent, ardent, overwhelming desire of the drowning man for a breath of air; of the shipwrecked or desert-lost man for a drink of water; of the famished man for bread and meat "
"See things as you would have them be instead of as they are"
"The great successful men of the world have used their imaginationthey think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building - steadily building."
