"Think and grow rich"
About this Quote
The phrase "Think and grow rich" distills Napoleon Hill's belief that prosperity begins as a disciplined mental act. Written in 1937 amid the Great Depression and shaped by his decades of studying industrialists at Andrew Carnegie’s urging, Hill framed success as a reproducible process rather than an accident. He interviewed figures like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison and extracted recurring habits: a burning desire, a definite aim, faith reinforced by autosuggestion, persistent action, and a circle of allies he called the mastermind.
"Think" does not mean idle daydreaming. It means directing attention, language, and emotion toward a specific goal until the mind, often through the subconscious, organizes perception and behavior around that aim. Visualization, self-talk, and daily repetition are tools for installing intentions. "Grow" suggests that wealth compounds from small, repeated choices. "Rich" points beyond money to Hill’s broader list of riches: peace of mind, sound health, enduring relationships, and personal freedom.
Hill anticipated ideas later validated in psychology: expectancy effects, self-efficacy, goal setting, and the way mental rehearsal primes action. He sometimes wrote in quasi-mystical tones, and later movements stretched his ideas into magical thinking. Yet his core logic remains pragmatic: beliefs shape decisions, decisions shape habits, and habits shape outcomes. Thought is the lever that moves behavior.
The title also carries a caveat. By making mindset central, it risks downplaying structural barriers, luck, and historical inequities that influence who can grow rich. Hill’s system empowers agency, but it does not abolish context. Its value is greatest as an antidote to fatalism, not as a blanket explanation for every result.
Taken as a practice, the phrase is a call to clarify what you want, saturate your mind with that intention, enlist collaborators, and persist through setbacks. Think as a verb: choose your aim, choose your story, and let those choices drive consistent action.
"Think" does not mean idle daydreaming. It means directing attention, language, and emotion toward a specific goal until the mind, often through the subconscious, organizes perception and behavior around that aim. Visualization, self-talk, and daily repetition are tools for installing intentions. "Grow" suggests that wealth compounds from small, repeated choices. "Rich" points beyond money to Hill’s broader list of riches: peace of mind, sound health, enduring relationships, and personal freedom.
Hill anticipated ideas later validated in psychology: expectancy effects, self-efficacy, goal setting, and the way mental rehearsal primes action. He sometimes wrote in quasi-mystical tones, and later movements stretched his ideas into magical thinking. Yet his core logic remains pragmatic: beliefs shape decisions, decisions shape habits, and habits shape outcomes. Thought is the lever that moves behavior.
The title also carries a caveat. By making mindset central, it risks downplaying structural barriers, luck, and historical inequities that influence who can grow rich. Hill’s system empowers agency, but it does not abolish context. Its value is greatest as an antidote to fatalism, not as a blanket explanation for every result.
Taken as a practice, the phrase is a call to clarify what you want, saturate your mind with that intention, enlist collaborators, and persist through setbacks. Think as a verb: choose your aim, choose your story, and let those choices drive consistent action.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wealth |
|---|---|
| Source | Think and Grow Rich — Napoleon Hill, 1937 (book). |
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