In As a Man Thinketh, James Allen details how man is the creator and shaper of his destiny by the thoughts which he thinks. He rises and falls in exact accordance with the character of the thoughts which he entertains. His environment is the result of what he has thought and done in the past, and his circumstances in the future are being shaped and built by his present desires, aspirations, thoughts, and actions. He therefore who chooses and pursues a particular line of thought, consciously builds his own destiny.