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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
In "Peace, Power & Plenty," Orison Swett Marden artfully intertwines motivational philosophy with practical guidance, exploring the profound relationship between inner peace, personal empowerment, and abundance. Marden's literary style is characterized by eloquent prose and a persuasive tone, drawing upon a blend of anecdotes, timeless wisdom, and actionable insights. Written during the late 19th century'—an era marked by rapid industrial growth and societal shifts'—this work reflects the burgeoning self-help movement, where Marden seeks to inspire individuals toward achieving their highest potential through introspection and proactive living. Orison Swett Marden, a pivotal figure in the New Thought movement, faced numerous adversities in his life, including poverty and personal loss. These challenges ignited his passion for self-improvement and the belief that individuals possess the innate power to shape their destinies. Marden founded a philosophy centered around optimism and self-reliance, which is evident in the uplifting themes of "Peace, Power & Plenty," where he encourages the reader to embrace positivity and courage in the face of life's uncertainties. This book is a compelling read for anyone seeking to enhance their well-being and cultivate a more abundant life. Marden's insightful reflections and practical advice not only resonate on a personal level but also provide a broader understanding of the universal laws of success and fulfillment. Whether you are on a journey of self-discovery or looking to empower others, Marden's work remains a timeless resource for achieving peace, power, and plenty. 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: 2024
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Peace, Power & Plenty (Unabridged)
Table of Contents
Introduction
Lasting success begins with inner serenity that generates outward strength. Orison Swett Marden’s Peace, Power & Plenty (Unabridged) presents a sustained argument that calmness of mind is not withdrawal from life but the very source of effective living. As a prominent voice in American self-improvement, Marden distills an approach that links composure, purposeful energy, and practical prosperity. This introduction to his work invites readers to encounter a text that treats peace as a discipline, power as character in action, and plenty as the natural overflow of a well-ordered inner life. The unabridged presentation preserves the full cadence and counsel of the original work.
First published in the early twentieth century, during a flourishing era of American personal-development writing, this book stands within a tradition that stressed optimism, self-mastery, and constructive thought. While not a narrative with a conventional setting, it speaks from and to a modernizing society seeking ethical footing amid rapid change. The cultural backdrop includes expanding industries, urban life, and new conversations about mind, health, and achievement. Marden’s contribution is to gather these currents into a clear, accessible philosophy of everyday practice, articulating how mental habits, cultivated deliberately, can stabilize the emotions, focus the will, and elevate one’s work and relationships.
Peace, Power & Plenty offers a reading experience that blends exhortation with practical reflection. Rather than mapping steps to a single formula, Marden presents a coherent outlook: to gain poise, fortify character, and direct energy toward worthy ends. The voice is confident and encouraging, the style brisk yet warm, and the mood resolutely constructive. Chapters move from inner attitudes to outward conduct, inviting readers to test ideas in daily tasks, speech, and decision-making. The unabridged text allows the book’s cumulative rhythm to build, so that recurring principles—attention, self-control, courage, and purpose—reinforce one another across the whole.
Key themes include the disciplined cultivation of peace as a form of power, the ethical roots of prosperity, and the transformative impact of sustained attention. Marden argues that the way one thinks shapes the quality of effort, that calmness clarifies judgment, and that true strength expresses itself in serviceable action. He explores how habits either scatter or intensify energy, how ideals orient conduct, and how confidence grows through honest work aligned with conscience. The book’s central promise is not instant change but steady growth: a patient training of the inner life that produces durable competence, reliability, and a generous spirit.
For contemporary readers navigating distraction, uncertainty, and fatigue, the book’s relevance is immediate. Its counsel aligns with ongoing conversations about focus, emotional regulation, and value-driven goals, while remaining anchored in plain, everyday applications. Without relying on technical jargon, Marden shows how clarity of purpose simplifies choices, how composure safeguards relationships, and how disciplined optimism opens possibilities. The emphasis on ethical means matches today’s interest in sustainable success, reminding readers that growth without integrity is brittle. The unabridged text preserves period phrasing, yet its questions—What anchors you? How do you direct your best energies?—remain current and pressing.
Stylistically, readers can expect crisp paragraphs, illustrative anecdotes, and aphoristic turns that condense advice into memorable lines, all characteristic of early twentieth-century self-help prose. The organization favors short, focused sections that build a comprehensive framework rather than a technical system. Marden’s examples draw from common experience and public life, keeping the emphasis on conduct that anyone can attempt. The tone respects the reader’s agency, urging self-examination without harshness. Because this is the complete text, it retains the steady escalation of themes, allowing insights about thought, habit, and character to echo and deepen across multiple contexts.
Approached as a companion for reflection and practice, Peace, Power & Plenty (Unabridged) rewards slow, attentive reading and real-world experiment. It is suited to those seeking a principled, time-tested path that ties composure to effectiveness and prosperity to service. Rather than promising quick fixes, it offers a vocabulary and method for aligning inner resources with outward aims. Readers may find themselves pausing to reframe a challenge, revising a routine, or strengthening a commitment to consistent effort. In preserving the full voice of Marden’s original, this edition invites a direct encounter with a classic statement of purposeful, peace-centered living.
Synopsis
Peace, Power & Plenty presents Orison Swett Marden’s central premise that inward serenity is the root of effective action and material sufficiency. He frames peace as a practical force, not a passive state, and argues that thought governs conditions more than circumstances govern thought. The book outlines a program for cultivating mental harmony, disciplined will, and constructive habits as the basis for influence, health, efficiency, and prosperity. Each chapter builds from inner mastery to outward results, proposing that character and calmness conserve energy, guide judgment, and attract opportunities. Marden positions the work as both inspirational and methodical, focused on applying mental laws to everyday life.
Marden begins by defining peace as poised self-command under all conditions. He asserts that worry, fear, and anger dissipate vitality, distort judgment, and hinder achievement. Cultivating serenity, he says, involves replacing agitation with confidence, practicing self-restraint, and assuming an optimistic interpretation of events. The argument emphasizes the moral tone of thought, proposing that noble ideals elevate conduct and clarify purpose. Habit formation is presented as the mechanism for stabilizing calmness, with the daily cultivation of cheerfulness and courage. This foundation of inner quiet, he maintains, prepares the individual for power by increasing steadiness, clarity, and the capacity to act decisively without haste.
The text then turns to poise, silence, and self-control as strategic assets. Marden contends that reticence strengthens judgment, protects plans, and heightens personal influence. A composed manner in meetings and crises, he notes, reassures others and sustains leadership. He encourages measured speech, deliberate movement, and thoughtful listening as methods to conserve nerve force. Non-resistance to trivial irritations and a refusal to be provoked are framed as signs of strength. By managing temper and tone, the individual maintains equilibrium and gains time to choose effective responses. This section links outward bearing to inward mastery, implying that serenity expressed as self-possession magnifies practical power.
Building on composure, Marden addresses the direction of thought, imagination, and will. He argues that constructive thinking, held steadily, fashions character and outcomes. The book recommends choosing uplifting ideas, envisioning desirable ends, and using affirmations and suggestion to reinforce purpose. Confidence is treated as a cultivated habit, formed through repeated success in small tasks and faithful adherence to chosen aims. Concentration receives special emphasis: attention fixed on a single objective concentrates energy, overcomes distractions, and increases accuracy. The author maintains that self-command comes from consistent practice, that ideals mold conduct, and that a disciplined inner life equips one to meet opportunities with readiness and resolve.
Health is presented as both a duty and a resource supporting usefulness and prosperity. Marden connects mental states to bodily conditions, suggesting that cheerfulness, hope, and calmness nourish vitality, while worry and discouragement impair it. He advocates regular rest, fresh air, moderate exercise, and temperance as practical safeguards. The book discusses the self-healing influence of a peaceful mind, proposing that harmony reduces strain and assists recovery. Attention to environment, recreation, and balanced habits is urged as a means of conserving force. The goal is a buoyant physical tone that sustains efficiency, strengthens willpower, and enables continuous effort without collapse or waste.
From health, the argument advances to conservation of energy and efficient work. Marden advises simplicity of life, order, and system to prevent unnecessary friction. He stresses the economy of effort: avoiding hurry, avoiding scattering attention, and finishing what is begun. Purpose functions as a compass, helping to select tasks that matter and to refuse distractions. He encourages forming routines that automate essentials, leaving the mind free for higher problems. Persistence, patience, and steady application are treated as reliable multipliers of ability. In this framework, serenity under pressure translates into punctuality, thoroughness, and dependability, turning calm self-mastery into consistent performance and results.
The book next considers personal influence and character as capital. Marden claims that integrity, courtesy, and service create trust, and trust converts ability into opportunity. He describes an attractive personal presence grounded in sincerity, fairness, and goodwill. Respect for others, punctual promises, and a cooperative spirit are portrayed as essential to leadership. He emphasizes that example persuades more than argument, and that a composed, helpful temperament wins allies. Character building, he argues, is continuous: each choice deepens habit and reputation. Influence, in this view, is the natural outcome of dependable conduct combined with poise, guiding teams, clients, and communities toward mutual benefit.
Turning to material success, Marden outlines what he calls the law of opulence: thought directed toward abundance, expressed through useful service and honest exchange. He discourages speculation and coercion, recommending value creation, fair dealing, and steady improvement of skill. The book highlights the money habit of intelligent saving, wise spending, and reinvestment in capacity. Courage in enterprise, adaptability, and persistence are emphasized, along with the refusal to be disheartened by setbacks. Prosperity is presented as a byproduct of character and mental harmony, not an end in itself. Ethical conduct, clarity of aim, and consistent effort are proposed as the surest path to financial plenty.
Marden concludes by uniting peace, power, and plenty as interdependent outcomes of self-mastery. The program is continuous: maintain serenity, cultivate strong ideals, conserve energy, and apply purpose to useful work. He portrays success as the outward expression of inward order, and a complete life as balanced among health, vocation, relationships, and service. The final emphasis is on daily practice rather than sudden transformation. By aligning thought, character, and action with constructive principles, the individual, he asserts, gains calm authority, effective influence, and material sufficiency. The book’s overall message is that inner harmony is the master key to practical achievement.
Historical Context
Peace, Power & Plenty (Unabridged) appeared in 1909, at the height of the American Progressive Era, when rapid industrialization, urban growth, and volatile finance reshaped everyday life. Orison Swett Marden, a New England–born physician-businessman and founder of Success Magazine (1897, New York), wrote from a milieu of bustling offices, efficiency drives, and crowded city streets. Electrification, mass transit, and skyscrapers recast New York and Boston into emblems of modern ambition. Yet Wall Street panics and trust consolidations sowed anxiety. Marden’s call for inner equilibrium, constructive ambition, and ethical prosperity reflects the era’s paradox: unprecedented opportunity paired with social strain and economic uncertainty.
The Panic of 1907, the so‑called “Bankers’ Panic,” was a defining shock. Beginning in October 1907, the failure of the Knickerbocker Trust Company in New York triggered bank runs and a cascading liquidity crisis. Stock prices plunged roughly 50 percent from 1906 highs, and credit evaporated for businesses and households. J. P. Morgan orchestrated emergency syndicates, while Treasury Secretary George B. Cortelyou injected more than $30 million of federal deposits to stabilize banks. Written soon after, Marden’s book addresses the culture of fear and speculation laid bare by the crisis, urging disciplined thinking, serenity under pressure, and steady, productive effort over gambling impulses.
The crisis’s policy aftermath also shaped Marden’s emphasis on resilient character. Congress passed the Aldrich–Vreeland Act (1908), creating the National Monetary Commission, chaired by Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, to study central banking reforms. In November 1910, leading financiers and economists met secretly on Jekyll Island, Georgia, drafting ideas that culminated in the Federal Reserve Act, signed by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913. Marden’s insistence on personal financial prudence and constructive industry resonates with this systemic push for stability: while lawmakers pursued institutional safeguards, he offered an inner bulwark—self-mastery and clear purpose—as protection against panics’ psychological contagion.
The panic’s real-economy shock rippled through publishing and advertising, directly touching Marden’s enterprise. Advertising expenditures contracted sharply in 1907–1908 as firms conserved cash, undermining magazines’ revenue models nationwide. Success Magazine, founded by Marden in 1897 to disseminate practical optimism, success case studies, and ethical business counsel, navigated this turbulent market. Peace, Power & Plenty reads like a response to that climate: it counsels readers to cultivate composure, conserve resources, and focus on building durable value when markets gyrate. The book’s tone—quiet strength amid noise—mirrors an editor-businessman writing for strivers whose livelihoods suddenly depended on inner steadiness as much as skill.
Progressive Era reforms supplied a complementary backdrop. President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” (1901–1909) attacked monopolistic power—Northern Securities Co. v. United States (1904)—and strengthened regulation through the Hepburn Act (1906) over rail rates. The Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act (both 1906) targeted fraud and unsafe production. Marden’s celebration of disciplined habits, clean living, and fair, service‑oriented enterprise dovetails with this reformist ethos. He consistently frames “plenty” not as mere accumulation but as socially rooted prosperity. By praising character over cornering markets, the book echoes trust‑busting ideals, advocating ethical competition and warning against shortcuts that corrode self-respect and public confidence.
A contemporaneous social‑intellectual current was the health-and-mind reform movement. New Thought, developing from the mid‑nineteenth‑century ideas of Phineas P. Quimby and flourishing in the 1890s–1910s, promoted the influence of belief and attention on well‑being and achievement. William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) and “The Energies of Men” (1906) popularized pragmatic psychology, while the National Committee for Mental Hygiene was founded in 1909 by Clifford Beers in New York. Marden’s language of constructive thought, calmness, and purposeful focus aligns with these currents. The book embodies a social push to confront urban fatigue and “nervousness” with disciplined psychology and healthful routines.
Industrial labor conflict and mass immigration formed the era’s human landscape. The Anthracite Coal Strike (Pennsylvania, 1902) and the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World (Chicago, 1905) dramatized tensions over wages and control. In New York, the garment workers’ “Uprising of the 20,000” (1909) sought safer conditions and fair pay. Immigration peaked in 1907 with over 1.2 million arrivals, while the U.S. population grew from 76.2 million (1900) to 92.2 million (1910), concentrating in cities. Marden’s counsel—thrift, education, self‑command—addressed newcomers and urban workers navigating precarious jobs, suggesting individual tools to advance amid crowded labor markets and volatile industrial relations.
As social critique, the book challenges the nervous, speculative ethos of high capitalism by redefining “power” as self‑governance and “plenty” as ethically grounded prosperity. It implicitly rebukes predatory finance, roulette‑style speculation, and hollow status competition that the 1907 panic exposed, urging readers to pursue stable, value‑creating work and healthful living. By framing dignity and opportunity as inner capacities available to the clerk, immigrant, or entrepreneur, it softens class divides without denying them. The text thus critiques an era of trusts and turbulence by proposing a civic alternative: character, moderation, and service as the proper foundations for private wealth and public confidence.
Peace, Power & Plenty (Unabridged)
Preface
NEVER before in the history of mankind has there been such an awakening to the great possibilities of the power of right thinking as we are now witnessing in all civilized countries.
Metaphysical schools are springing up under different names in all parts of the enlightened world. People are getting hold of little bits of one great divine truth, a new gospel of optimism and love, a philosophy of sweetness and light, which seems destined to furnish a universal principle upon which people of all nations, of varying philosophies and creeds, can unite for the betterment of the race.
The basic principle of this great metaphysical movement has opened up many possibilities of mind building, character building, body building, and success building which are destined to bring untold blessings to the world.
We are all conscious that there is something in us which is never sick, never sins, and never dies, a power back of the flesh but not of it, which connects us with Divinity, makes us one with the Infinite Life.
We are beginning to discover something of the nature of this tremendous force back of the flesh, this power which heals, regenerates, rejuvenates, harmonizes, and upbuilds, and which will ultimately bring us into that state of blessedness which we instinctively feel is the birthright of every human being.
To present in clear, simple language, shorn of all technicalities, the principles of the new philosophy which promises to lift life out of commonness and discord and make it worth while; to show how these principles may be grasped and applied in a practical way in every-day living to each person’s own individual case is the object of this volume.
There is a growing belief that “God never made His work for man to mend.” We are just beginning to discover that the same Principle which created us, repairs, restores, renews, heals us; that the remedies for all our ills are inside of us, in Divine Principle, which is the truth of our being. We are learning that there is an immortal principle of health in every individual, which, if we could utilize, would heal all our wounds and furnish a balm for all the hurts of mankind.
The author attempts to show that the body is but the mind externalized, the habitual mental state outpictured; that the bodily condition follows the thought, and that we are sick or well, happy or miserable, young or old, lovable or unlovable, according to the degree in which we control our mental processes. He shows how man can renew his body by renewing his thought, or change his body, his character, by changing his thought.
The book teaches that man need not be the victim of his environment, but can be the master of it; that there is no fate outside of him which determines his life, his aims; that each person can shape his own environment, create his own condition; that the cure for poverty, ill-health, and unhappiness lies in bringing one’s self through scientific thinking into conscious union with the great Source of Infinite life, the Source of opulence, of health, and harmony. This conscious union with the Creator, this getting in tune with the Infinite, is the secret of all peace, power, and prosperity.
It emphasizes man’s oneness with Infinite Life, and the truth that when he comes into the full realization of his inseparable connection with the creative energy of the universe, he shall never know lack or want again.
This volume shows how man can stand porter at the door of his mind, admitting only his friend thoughts, only those suggestions that will produce joy, prosperity; and excluding all his enemy thoughts which would bring discord, suffering, or failure.
It teaches that “your ideal is a prophecy of what you shall at last unveil,” that “thought is another name for fate,” that we can think ourselves out of discord into harmony, out of disease into health, out of darkness into light, out of hatred into love, out of poverty and failure into prosperity and success.
Before a man can lift himself, he must lift his thought. When we shall have learned to master our thought habits, to keep our minds open to the great divine inflow of life force, we shall have learned the secret of human blessedness. Then a new era will dawn for the race.
O. S. M.
January, 1909.
Chapter I. The Power Of The Mind To Compel The Body
Our destiny changes with our thought; we shall become what we wish to become,[1q] do what we wish to do, when our habitual thought corresponds with our desire.
“The ‘divinity that shapes our ends’ is in ourselves; it is our very self.”
LONG before Henry Irving[1]’s death, his physician cautioned him against playing his famous part in “The Bells,” on account of the tremendous strain upon his heart. Ellen Terry, his leading woman for many years, says in her biography of him:
Every time he heard the sound of bells, the throbbing of his heart must have nearly killed him. He used always to turn quite white—there was no trick about it. It was imagination acting physically on the body.
His death as Matthias—the death of a strong, robust man—was different from all his other stage deaths. He did really almost die—he imagined death with such horrible intensity. His eyes would disappear upward, his face grow gray, his limbs cold.
No wonder, then, that the first time that the Wolverhampton doctor’s warning was disregarded, and Henry played “The Bells” at Bradford, his heart could, not stand the strain. Within twenty-four hours of his last death as “Matthias’' he was dead.
As Becket on the following night—the night of his death—his physicians said that he was undoubtedly dying throughout the entire performance. So buoyed up and stimulated was he by his great zeal for his work and the bracing influence of his audience that he actually held death at bay.
It is a common experience for actors who are ill to be cured for a time and to be entirely forgetful of their aches and pains under the stimulus of ambition and the brain-quickening influence of their audiences.
Edward H. Sothern says that he feels a great increase of brain activity when he is on the stage, and this is accompanied by a corresponding physical exhilaration. “The very air I breathe,” says Mr. Sothern, “seems more stimulating. Fatigue leaves me at the stage door; and I have often given performances without any suffering when I should otherwise have been under a doctor’s care.” Noted orators, great preachers, and famous singers have had similar experiences.
That “imperious must” which compels the actor to do his level best, whether he feels like it or not, is a force which no ordinary pain or physical disability can silence or overcome. Somehow, even when we feel that it is impossible for us to make the necessary effort, when the crisis comes, when the emergency is upon us, when we feel the prodding of this imperative, imperious necessity, there is a latent power within us which comes to our rescue, which answers the call, and we do the impossible.
It is an unusual thing for singers or actors and actresses to be obliged to give up their parts even for a night, but when they are off duty, or on their vacations, they are much more likely to be ill or indisposed. There is a common saying among actors and singers that they cannot afford to be sick.
“We don’t get sick,” said an actor, “because we can’t afford that luxury. It is a case of ‘must' with us; and although there have been times when, had I been at home, or a private man, I could have taken to my bed with as good a right to be sick as any one ever had, I have not done so, and have worn off the attack through sheer necessity. It is no fiction that will-power is the best of tonics, and theatrical people understand that they must keep a good stock of it always on hand.”
I know of an actor who suffered such tortures with inflammatory rheumatism that even with the aid of a cane he could not walk two blocks, from his hotel to the theatre; yet when his cue was called, he not only walked upon the stage with the utmost ease and grace, but was also entirely oblivious of the pain which a few moments before had made him wretched. A stronger motive drove out the lesser, made him utterly unconscious of his trouble, and the pain for the time was gone. It was not merely covered up by some other thought, passion, or emotion, but it was temporarily annihilated; and as soon as the play was over, and his part finished, he was crippled again.
General Grant was suffering greatly from rheumatism at Appomattox, but when a flag of truce informed him that Lee was ready to surrender, his great joy not only made him forget his rheumatism but also drove it completely away—at least for some time.
The shock occasioned by the great San Francisco earthquake cured a paralytic who had been crippled for fifteen years. There were a great many other wonderful cures reported which were almost instantaneous. Men and women who had been practically invalids for a long time, and who were scarcely able to wait upon themselves, when the crisis came and they were confronted by this terrible situation, worked like Trojans, carrying their children and household goods long distances to places of safety.
We do not know what we can bear until we are put to the test. Many a delicate mother, who thought that she could not survive the death of her children, has lived to bury her husband and the last one of a large family, and in addition to all this has seen her home and last dollar swept away; yet she has had the courage to bear it all and to go on as before. When the need comes, there is a power deep within us that answers the call.
Timid girls who have always shuddered at the mere thought of death have in some fatal accident entered into the shadow of the valley without a tremor or murmur. We can face any kind of inevitable danger with wonderful fortitude. Frail, delicate women will go on an operating-table with marvellous courage, even when they know that the operation is likely to be fatal. But the same women might go all to pieces over the terror of some impending danger, because of the very uncertainty of what might be in store for them. Uncertainty gives fear a chance to get in its deadly work on the imagination and make cowards of us.
A person who shrinks from the prick of a pin, and who, under ordinary circumstances, can not endure without an anesthetic the extraction of a tooth or the cutting of flesh, even in a trivial operation, can, when mangled in an accident, far from civilization, stand the amputation of a limb without as much fear and terror as he might suffer at home from the lancing of a felon.
I have seen a dozen strong men go to their deaths in a fire without showing the slightest sign of fear. There is something within every one of us that braces us up in a catastrophe and makes us equal to any emergency. This something is the God in us. These brave firemen did not shrink even when they saw every means of escape cut off. The last rope thrown to them had consumed away; the last ladder had crumbled to ashes, and they were still in a burning tower one hundred feet above a blazing roof. Yet they showed no sign of fear or cowardice when the tower sank into the seething caldron of flame.
