As a Man Thinketh So is he
1. THE KING JAMES BIBLE STYLE
(Majestic, prophetic, solemn, patterned like Scripture)
AS A MAN THINKETH — KING JAMES RENDERING
Verily, the thoughts of a man are the wellspring of his days;
And as he thinketh in his heart,
So shall his life be fashioned.
If he setteth his mind upon vanity,
Behold, vanity shall compass him about;
But if he fixeth his thoughts upon the Lord,
Strength and wisdom shall be his reward.
For the spirit followeth the meditations of the heart,
And the path of a man
Walketh in the counsel of his inward imaginations.
Keep therefore thy mind with all diligence,
For out of it are the inclinations of life.
Let thy thoughts be steadfast,
Full of truth, full of light, full of righteousness;
So shalt thou be established,
And thy days shall prosper in the land
2. THE SOCRATES DISCORD STYLE
(Dialectical, questioning, probing the soul for truth)
AS A MAN THINKETH — A SOCRATIC MEDITATION
Tell me, my friend:
Is a man anything more than the thoughts he welcomes?
For if the soul is shaped by its inquiries,
And virtue by its knowledge,
Then must not a man become what his mind consents to examine?
Consider this:
When one entertains falsehood, does he not live falsely?
And when one contemplates the good,
Does not his life move toward the good?
If the mind is the pilot of the soul,
Should we not question every thought
As we question every claim—
Testing, refining, discarding the unworthy?
Thus it seems to me
That as a man thinketh, so he becomes;
Not by chance, nor by the decree of the sages
But by the discipline of his inner conversation.
Let us then examine our thoughts,
For the unexamined mind
Builds an unexamined life—
And no man should live so poorly.
3. PLATO'S REFLECTIVE STYLE
(Grand, metaphysical, visionary; ideas and forms; the ascent of the soul)
AS A MAN THINKETH — A PLATONIC REFLECTION
In every man there dwells a shaping power,
Invisible yet sovereign—
The mind, which beholds the Forms
And fashions the soul according to what it gazes upon.
If he turns his thought toward shadows,
His life becomes a cave of illusions;
But if he fixes his mind upon what is true,
He climbs toward the light,
And his being is illumined by the Good.
The soul ascends or descends
By the weight of its meditations.
For thought is the charioteer
Guiding the steeds of passion and desire
Toward virtue—or toward ruin.
Thus the man who contemplates the noble
Becomes noble;
He who entertains the just
Becomes just.
As thought rises, so rises the soul;
As thought falls, so falls the man.
Therefore, as a man thinketh in his heart,
So indeed is he—
For no destiny is greater
Than the one the mind prepares.
4. ARISTOCRATIC STYLE
(Practical, logical, virtue-centered, grounded in cause and purpose)
AS A MAN THINKETH — ARISTOTELIAN VERSION
Every action arises from a prior thought;
And as the thought, so the character—
For habit is formed by repetition,
And character is but a collection of habits perfected.
Since the soul moves in accordance with reason,
A man becomes virtuous
By thinking upon the virtuous;
Likewise does he become base
By contemplating what is base.
The mind is the first mover of conduct,
And conduct the measure of a man.
Therefore the excellence of life
Depends not on fortune nor circumstance,
But on the quality of thought
Chosen deliberately and maintained consistently.
Thus it is evident:
As a man thinketh, so is he;
For thought shapes habit,
Habit shapes virtue,
And virtue shapes destiny.
5. SHAKESPEAREAN DISCORD
(Elizabethan tone, iambic flow, grand metaphor, archaic diction)
AS A MAN THINKETH — A SHAKESPEAREAN RENDERING
What art thou but the echo of thy thought,
A shadow cast by visions in thy breast?
For in the silent chambers of the mind
Doth man beget the measure of himself.
If thou dost nurse base fears, thy spirit shrinks
Like winter’s rose beneath a bitter frost;
Yet if thy thought be noble, high, and pure,
Thy life shall blossom as the summer’s prime.
The mind’s the sovereign of this mortal frame,
A subtle king that crowns thee with thy fate.
So guard it well, lest traitorous notions steal
And bind thee in the dungeons of despair.
As man doth think, so standeth he revealed—
His deeds but servants to his inward dreams.
Shape then thy thoughts with wisdom’s tempered hand,
And thou shalt carve thy destiny with grace
6. IF MARCUS AURELIUS WROTE IT
(Stoic, calm, introspective, disciplined)
AS A MAN THINKETH — STOIC REFLECTION
The soul takes the form of what it holds within.
If the mind clings to disorder,
Life becomes disordered.
But if the mind remains disciplined,
Life aligns with reason.
Do not blame the world,
For it has given you only what your thoughts interpret.
You suffer not from events themselves,
But from the judgments you attach to them.
Order your mind,
And you order your life.
Let your thoughts be governed by virtue:
Justice, courage, self-control, wisdom.
For a man becomes
What he continually affirms within.
Remember:
As your thoughts shape the present,
They prepare the future.
Therefore think well—
And live well.
7. IF LAO TZU WROTE IT
(Flowing, paradoxical, gentle, Taoist imagery)
AS A MAN THINKETH — TAO TE CHING STYLE
The mind is like water—
Reflecting what it holds.
When it is troubled, the world appears troubled;
When it is clear, all things shine.
A man becomes his thoughts
As a valley becomes the river that fills it.
What you nourish within
Grows without effort.
Hold anger, and you walk in storms;
Hold peace, and even storms bow before you.
The Tao flows where the mind allows it.
To think with harmony
Is to live in harmony.
Thus the sage knows:
The inner world shapes the outer one.
As a man thinketh—
So is he.
8. A GRAND EPIC VERSION — BLENDING ALL VERSIONS.
(Philosophical, poetic, scriptural, timeless)
AS A MAN THINKETH — THE UNIVERSAL VERSION
Before the world shapes a man,
His mind has already shaped his world.
Kings, poets, prophets, philosophers—
All have spoken this mystery in their tongue:
Shakespeare saw thought as a sovereign king, Crowning man with fate.
Socrates asked the soul to examine its reason,
Lest untested notions mislead it.
Plato lifted thought toward the eternal Forms,
Where the soul remembers its true light.
Aristotle traced thought into habit,
Habit into virtue,
Virtue into destiny.
The Scriptures declared with finality:
“As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
The Stoic emperor agreed,
Saying the mind sculpts the world it sees.
The Taoist sage whispered
That the heart becomes what it holds.
Thus all paths converge:
A man rises to the measure of his thoughts,
Or falls by their weight.
Guard them; shape them; honor them—
For from them flows the life you will live.
