Understand in about 5 minutes
Wattles argues that wealth follows inevitably from thinking and acting in a specific creative way aligned with the infinite formative power underlying all things.
Mind Map
Core Message
Wattles opens by refusing any romance about poverty. Full development of body, mind, and soul requires material resources, and the desire to be rich is the desire for fuller life, a praiseworthy impulse rather than a selfish one.
Getting rich is neither luck nor talent nor environment. Those who become rich have done things, thought and acted, in a specific way, and that way can be learned and applied by anyone with enough desire and faith to follow it.
Wattles insists that genuine wealth cannot be built by taking from others or by competing for a limited supply. The creative thinker draws from an inexhaustible Formless Substance by impressing clear mental images upon it, adding to the total life of the world rather than redistributing it.
Vision and faith without action produce nothing. The book insists that a person must act now, in present circumstances, with present people, and make each act efficient. The two together, clear mental image held in faith and purposeful action performed well today, set the creative forces in motion and draw results toward the actor.
Summary
The Science of Getting Rich opens with a declaration that poverty is not noble and that the fullest expression of human life, physical, mental, and spiritual, requires money. Wattles frames the desire to become rich not as greed but as the natural impulse of life seeking to expand. The book then makes its central claim: wealth is the result of doing things in a certain way, and that way is learnable by anyone.
The cosmological foundation Wattles lays is monistic. There is one original Formless Substance from which all things are made, and this substance is intelligent. It thinks, and when it thinks a form, it produces that form. Human beings are thinking centers within this substance, capable of originating thought and, by impressing vivid mental images upon Formless Substance, of causing the things they picture to be created through the ordinary channels of commerce and human activity.
A recurring distinction runs through the book between the competitive mind and the creative mind. The competitive mind works within a fixed supply, trying to get more than others; such gains are unstable and come at others' expense. The creative mind recognizes that supply is unlimited and that the goal is to add value: to give every person more in use value than one takes in cash value. This orientation keeps the thinker aligned with the creative intelligence of the universe rather than opposing it.
Gratitude is treated as a practical mechanism, not a pious sentiment. It keeps the mind fixed on abundance rather than lack, prevents the drift into competitive thought, and strengthens faith by maintaining the sense that good things are already moving toward the person. Wattles pairs this with precise instruction on forming a clear and definite mental picture of what one wants, holding it with steady purpose and unwavering faith, and mentally claiming possession of it as if it were already real.
The final movement of the book insists that thought without action is sterile. A person must act in their present business and present environment, doing all that can be done each day and doing each act with full efficiency. The crucial principle of efficient action is that it is not the quantity of acts but the quality of each one that advances a person. Every act performed with faith and purpose behind the mental image is a success in itself, and successes compound: each one opens the way to the next, drawing what is wanted toward the actor with increasing speed.
Key Concepts
Wattles posits one intelligent, creative raw material underlying everything in the universe. It responds to thought by moving toward the forms that thought images, working through existing natural and commercial channels.
This is the metaphysical premise the rest of the system rests on. If accepted, it means the supply of wealth is genuinely unlimited and that a person's mental images have real formative power.
The specific combination Wattles prescribes: form a clear, definite mental picture of what you want; hold it with unshakable purpose and faith; feel deep gratitude; and act with full efficiency in the present, doing all that can be done each day.
It is the practical core of the book. Every chapter is either explaining one of its components or removing an obstacle (competitive thought, vagueness, procrastination) that prevents a person from following it.
The competitive mind operates as if wealth is a fixed stock to be seized from others. The creative mind draws from unlimited Formless Substance and gives more value than it takes, adding to everyone's life in every transaction.
This distinction sets the ethical boundaries of the system. Wattles argues that competitive gains are unstable and that only the creative orientation keeps a person in harmony with the intelligence that produces wealth.
Mental Models
Just as a physical mold shapes poured material into a form, a clear and detailed mental image impresses Formless Substance and causes it to move through natural channels to produce the imagined result.
It makes vagueness an identifiable error: an unclear image produces no form, so the practical task becomes making the mental picture as specific and detailed as possible.
Faith is the unwavering conviction that what you want is already being created and is on its way; purpose is the steady intention to realize the vision. Together they sustain the mental image against the erosion of doubt, anxiety, and competitive thought.
Separating faith from mere wishing, and purpose from mere desire, gives the reader clear internal states to cultivate rather than vague attitudes to hope for.
Each act is either a success or a failure in itself. To act efficiently means to put full power (attention, faith, purpose) into each separate thing done, rather than rushing through many acts superficially.
It reframes daily work as a chain of small creative events, each one either opening or closing the next door. The focus shifts from volume to quality of effort, making the path toward wealth concrete and daily.
Selected Quotes
By thought, the thing you want is brought to you; by action you receive it.
man must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; otherwise he cannot be in harmony with the Formless Intelligence, which is always creative and never competitive in spirit.
_It is really not the number of things you do, but the EFFICIENCY of each separate action that counts._
Source
Source text: Project Gutenberg edition of The Science of Getting Rich by W. D. Wattles.
HTML text: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59844/pg59844.txt
Project Gutenberg states this eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
First published 1910 by Elizabeth Towne, Holyoke, Massachusetts.