The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

I finished this book in September 2025. I recommend this book 4/10.

Why you should read this book:

This book is centered around Christian faith. The book was published in 1952, and through seventeen chapters, one of the most influential ministers from New York City explains how, with faith, you can stay positive in a stressful world.

Get your copy here.

🚀 The book in three sentences

1. The book is very religious

2. Don't fight alone, partner with God

3. Live by the Golden Rules

📝 My notes and thoughts

• P10. "Yes," He said, "I do not think I could have gotten through this at all if I hadn't had some help from God." "Now," I said, "Let's list the assets we have figured out. Take a look at that. I guess you have quite a total of assets.

  • A wonderful wife—married for thirty years

  • Three devoted children who will stand by you

  • Friends who will help you and who hold you in esteem

  • Integrity—nothing to be ashamed of

  • Good physical health

  • Live in the United States, the greatest country in the world

  • Have religious faith

• P12. To sum up—what can you do now to build up your self-confidence? The following are ten simple, workable rules for overcoming inadequate attitudes and learning to practice faith. Thousands have used these rules, reporting successful results. Undertake this program and you, too, will build up confidence in your powers. You, too, will have a new feeling of power.

  • Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop this picture. Never think of yourself as failing; never doubt the reality of the mental image. That is most dangerous, for the mind always tries to complete the picture. So always picture "success" no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment.

  • Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal powers comes to mind, deliberately voice a positive thought to cancel it out.

  • Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. Depreciate every so-called obstacle. Minimize them. Difficulties must be studied and efficiently dealt with to be eliminated, but they must be seen for only what they are. They must not be inflated by fearful thoughts.

  • Do not be awestruck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as YOU can. Remember also that most people, despite their confident appearance and demeanor, are often as scared as you are and as doubtful of themselves.

  • Ten times a day repeat these dynamic words, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). (Stop reading and repeat them NOW slowly and confidently.)

  • Get a competent counselor to help you understand why you do what you do. Learn the origin of your inferiority and self-doubt feelings, which often begin in childhood. Self-knowledge leads to a cure.

  • Ten times each day, practice the following affirmation, repeating it out loud if possible, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13). Repeat those words NOW. That magic statement is the most powerful antidote on earth to inferiority thoughts.

  • Make a true estimate of your own ability, then raise it 10 percent. Do not become egotistical, but develop a wholesome self-respect. Believe in your own God-released powers.

  • Put yourself in God's hands. To do that, simply state, "I am in God's hands." Then believe you are NOW receiving all the power you need. Feel it flowing into you. Affirm that "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21) in the form of adequate power to meet life's demands.

  • Remind yourself that God is with you and nothing can defeat you. Believe that you now  RECEIVE power from him.

• P22. Another effective technique in developing a peaceful mind is the daily practice of silence. Everyone should insist upon not less than a quarter of an hour of absolute quiet every twenty-four hours. Go alone into the quietest place available to you and sit or lie down for fifteen minutes and practice the art of silence. Do not talk to anyone. Do not write. Do not read. Think as little as possible. Throw your mind into neutral. Conceive of your mind as quiescent, inactive. This will not be easy at first because thoughts are stirring up your mind, but practice will increase your efficiency.

• P33. A famous statesman who made seven speeches in one day was still boundless in energy. "Why are you not tired after making seven speeches?" I asked. "Because," he said, "I believe absolutely in everything I said in those speeches. I am enthusiastic about my convictions." That's the secret. He was on fire for something. He was pouring himself out, and you never lose energy and vitality in so doing. You only lose energy when life becomes dull in your mind. Your mind gets bored and, therefore, tired doing nothing. You don't have to be tired. Get interested in something. Get absolutely enthralled in something. Throw yourself into it with abandon. Get out of yourself. Be somebody. Do something. Don't sit around moaning about things, reading the papers, and saying, "Why don't they do something?" The man who is out doing something isn't tired. If you're not getting into good causes, no wonder you're tired. You're disintegrating. You're deteriorating. You're dying on the vine. The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have. You don't have time to think about yourself and get bogged down in your emotional difficulties. To live with constant energy, it is important to get your emotional faults corrected. You will never have full energy until you do.

• P48. "So," he said, "I began to practice the spiritual principles presented in your book. I began to believe and affirm that with God's help, the objectives I was endeavoring to accomplish could be achieved. A feeling came over me that everything was going to be all right, and from then on, nothing could upset me. I absolutely knew it was going to be OK. So I began to sleep better and feel better. I felt as if I had taken a tonic. My new understanding and practice of spiritual techniques were the turning point."

• P51. Dr. Laubach believes that actual power is generated by prayer. One of his methods is to walk down the street and "shoot" prayers at people. He calls this type of praying flash prayers. He bombards passersby with prayers, sending out thoughts of goodwill and love. He says that people passing him on the street as he "shoots" prayers at them often turn around and look at him and smile. They feel the emanation of a power like electrical energy.

• P54. Following are ten rules for getting effective results from prayer:

  • Set aside a few minutes every day. Do not say anything. Simply practice thinking about God. This will make your mind spiritually receptive.

  • Then pray orally, using simple, natural words. Tell God anything that is on your mind. Do not think you must use stereotyped pious phrases. Talk to God in your own language. He understands it.

  • Pray as you go about the business of the day, on the subway or bus, or at your desk. Utilize minute prayers by closing your eyes to shut out the world and concentrating briefly on God's presence. The more you do this every day, the nearer you will feel God's presence.

  • Do not always ask when you pray, but instead affirm that God's blessings are being given, and spend most of your prayers giving thanks.

  • Pray with the belief that sincere prayers can reach out and surround your loved ones with God's love and protection.

  • Never use a negative thought in prayer. Only positive thoughts get results.

  • Always express willingness to accept God's will. Ask for what you want, but be willing to take what God gives you. It may be better than what you ask for.

  • Practice the attitude of putting everything in God's hands. Ask for the ability to do your best and to leave the results confidently to God.

  • Pray for people you do not like or who have mistreated you. Resentment is blockade number one of spiritual power.

  • Make a list of people for whom to pray. The more you pray for other people, especially those not connected with you, the more prayer results will come back to you.

• P60. While dressing or shaving or getting breakfast, say aloud a few such remarks as the following: "I believe this is going to be a wonderful day. I believe I can successfully handle all problems that will arise today. I feel good physically, mentally, emotionally. It is wonderful to be alive. I am grateful for all that I have had, for all that I now have, and for all that I shall have. Things aren't going to fall apart. God is here and He is with me and He will see me through. I thank God for every good thing.

• P70. A first step is to reduce your pace or at least the tempo of your pace. We do not realize how accelerated the rate of our lives has become, or the speed at which we are driving ourselves. Many people are destroying their physical bodies by this pace, but what is even more tragic, they are tearing their minds and souls to shreds as well. It is possible for a person to live a quiet existence physically and yet maintain a high tempo emotionally. Even an invalid can live a too high a pace from that standpoint. The character of our thought determines pace. When the mind goes rushing on pell-mell from one feverish attitude to another, it becomes feverish, and the result is a state bordering on petulance. The pace of modern life must be reduced if we are not to suffer profoundly from its debilitating overstimulation and super-excitement. This overstimulation produces toxic poisons in the body and creates emotional illness. It produces fatigue and a sense of frustration so that we fume and fret about everything from our personal troubles to the state of the nation and the world. If the effect of this emotional disquiet is so pronounced physically, what must its effect be on that deep inner essence of the personality known as the soul? It is impossible to have peace of soul if the pace is so feverishly accelerated.

• P72. Remember the words of Jesus, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile" (Mark 6:31). Even as I write these words and give you this good advice, I recall instances where it has been necessary to remind myself to practice the same truth, which emphasizes that we must everlastingly discipline ourselves to quietness if we expect its benefits in our lives.

• P76. Every day, we perform a series of acts designed to care for the body properly. We bathe, brush our teeth, and take exercise. In a similar fashion, we should give time and planned effort to keeping the mind in a healthy state. One way to do this is to sit quietly and pass a series of peaceful thoughts through the mind. For example, pass through the thoughts the memory of a lofty mountain, a misty valley, a sun-speckled trout stream, silver moonlight on water. At least once in every twenty-four hours, preferably in the busiest part of the day, deliberately stop whatever you are doing for ten or fifteen minutes and practice serenity. There are times when it is essential resolutely to check our headlong pace, and it must be emphasized that the only way to stop is to stop.

• P81. Following is a technique consisting of six points which I have personally found of great helpfulness in reducing the tendency to fume and fret. I have suggested its use to countless people who practice it and find it of great value:

  • Sit relaxed in a chair. Completely yield yourself to the chair. Starting with your toes and proceeding to the top of your head, conceive of every portion of the body as relaxing. Affirm relaxation by saying, "My toes are relaxed—my fingers—my facial muscles."

  • Think of your mind as the surface of a lake in a storm, tossed by waves and in turmoil. But now the waves subside, and the surface of the lake is placid and unruffled.

  • Spend two or three minutes thinking of the most beautiful and peaceful scenes you have ever beheld, as, for example, a mountain at sunset, or a deep valley filled with the hush of early morning, or a woods at noonday, or moonlight upon rippling waters. In memory, relive these scenes.

  • Repeat slowly, quietly, bringing out the melody in each, a series of words which express quietness and peace, as for example, (a) tranquility (say it very deliberately and in a tranquil manner); (b) serenity; (c) quietness. Think of other such words and repeat them.

  • Make a mental list of times in your life when you have been conscious of God's watchful care and recall how, when you were worried and anxious. He brought things out right and took care of you. Then recite aloud this line from an old hymn, "So long Thy power hath kept me, sure STILL will lead me on."

  • Repeat the following, which has an amazing power to relax and quiet the mind: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee" (Isaiah 26:3). Repeat it aloud if possible, so that by the end of the day, you will have said it many times. Conceive of these words as active, vital substances permeating your mind, sending into every area of your thinking a healing balm. This is the best-known medicine for taking tension from the mind.

• P93. "A person who is self-reliant, positive, optimistic, and undertakes his work with the assurance of success magnetizes his condition. He draws to himself the creative powers of the universe."

• P102. General Tudor knows how to stand up to an obstacle. Just stand up to it, that's all, and don't give way under it, and it will finally break. You will break it. Something has to break, and it won't be you; it will be the obstacle. You can do this when you have faith, faith in God, and faith in yourself. Faith is the chief quality you need. It is enough. In fact, it is more than enough.

• P108. "The rough is only mental. I think victory—I get victory." Remember that formula. Write it on a piece of paper, put it in your wallet, stick it up on your mirror where you shave each morning, put it over the kitchen sink, put it on your dressing table and on your desk—keep looking at it until its truth drives into the depths of your consciousness, until it permeates your whole mental attitude, until it becomes a positive obsession—"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

• P115. Practice emptying the mind daily. This should be done preferably before retiring at night to avoid the retention by the consciousness of worries while you sleep. During sleep, thoughts tend to sink more deeply into the subconscious. The last five minutes before going to sleep are of extraordinary importance, for in that brief period the mind is most receptive to suggestion. It tends to absorb the last ideas that are entertained in waking consciousness. To drain them, utilize a process of creative imagination. Conceive of yourself as actually emptying your mind of all anxiety and fear. Picture all worry thoughts as flowing out as you would let water flow from a basin by removing the stopper. Repeat the following affirmation during this visualization: "With God's help, I am now emptying my mind of all anxiety, all fear, all sense of insecurity."

• P116. However, it is not enough to empty the mind, for the mind will not long remain empty. It must be occupied by something. It cannot continue in a state of vacuum. Therefore, upon emptying the mind, practice refilling it. Fill it with thoughts of faith, hope, courage, and expectancy. Say aloud such affirmations as the following: "God is now filling my mind with courage, with peace, with calm assurance. God is not protecting me from all harm. God is now protecting my loved ones from all harm. God is now guiding me to the right decisions. God will see me through this situation." A half-dozen times each day crowd your mind with such thoughts as these until the mind is overflowing with them. In due course, these thoughts of faith will crowd out worry.

• P122. To conclude this chapter in a manner designed to help you go to work now to break the worry habit, I list a ten-point worry-breaking formula.

  • Say to yourself, "Worry is just a very bad mental habit. And I can change any habit with God's help."

  • You became a worrier by practicing worry. You can become free of worry by practicing the opposite and stronger habit of faith. With all the strength and perseverance you can command, start practicing faith.

  • How do you practice faith? First thing every morning, before you arise, say out loud, "I believe," three times.

  • Pray, using this formula, " I place this day, my life, my loved ones, my work in the Lord's hands. There is no harm in the Lord's hands, only good. Whatever happens, whatever results, if I am in the Lord's hands, it is the Lord's will and it is good."

  • Practice saying something positive concerning everything about which you have been talking negatively. Talk positively. For example, don't say, "This is going to be a terrible day." Instead, affirm, " This is going to be a glorious day." Don't say, "I'll never be able to do that." Instead, affirm, "With God's help, I will do that."

  • Never participate in a worry conversation. Shoot an injection of faith into all your conversations. A group of people talking pessimistically can infect every person in the group with negativism. But by talking things up rather than down, you can drive off that depressing atmosphere and make everyone feel hopeful and happy.

  • One reason you are a worrier is that your mind is literally saturated with apprehension thoughts, defeat thoughts, gloomy thoughts. To counteract, mark every passage in the Bible that speaks of faith, hope, happiness, glory, and radiance. Commit each to memory. Say them over and over again until these creative thoughts saturate your subconscious mind. Then the subconscious will return to you what you have given it, namely, optimism, not worry.

  • Cultivate friendships with hopeful people. Surround yourself with friends who think positive, faith-producing thoughts and who contribute to a creative atmosphere. This will keep you re-stimulated with faith attitudes.

  • See how many people you can help to cure their own worry habit. In helping another to overcome worry, you get greater power over it within yourself.

  • Every day of your life, conceive of yourself as living in partnership and companionship with Jesus Christ. If he actually walked by your side, would you be worried or afraid? Well, then, say to yourself, "He is with me." Affirm aloud, "I am with you always." Then change it to say, "He is with me now." Repeat that affirmation three times every day.

• P134. In this chapter, I have tried to show various methods for solving a problem. Now I wish to give ten simple suggestions as a concrete technique to use generally in solving your problems:

  • Believe that for every problem there is a solution.

  • Keep calm. Tension blocks the flow of thought power. Your brain cannot operate efficiently under stress. Go at your problem easily.

  • Don't try to force an answer. Keep your mind relaxed so that the solution will open up and become clear.

  • Assemble all the facts impartially, impersonally, and judicially.

  • List these facts on paper. This clarifies your thinking, bringing the various elements into an orderly system. You see as well as think. The problem becomes objective, not subjective.

  • Pray about your problem, affirming that God will flash illumination into your mind.

  • Believe in and seek God's guidance on the promise of the 73rd Psalm, "Thou shalt guide me by the counsel."

  • Trust in the faculty of insight and intuition.

  • Go to church and let your subconscious work on the problem as you attune to the mood of worship. Creative spiritual thinking has amazing power to give "right" answers.

  • If you follow these steps faithfully, then the answer that develops in your mind, or comes to pass, is the right answer to your problem.

• P159. Jesus Christ, "Even as You can convert a person's morals, so now I ask You to convert my nerves. As You give power over the sins of the flesh, so give me power over the sins of the disposition. Bring my temper under Your control. Give me Thy healing peace in my nervous system as well as in my soul." If you are best by temper, repeat the above prayer three times every day. It might be advisable to print it on a card and put it on your desk, or above the kitchen sink, or in your purse.

• P168. "It all lies in how you think about problems," he replied. "I attack a problem and shake it to pieces with my mind. I put all the mental power I have upon it. Second, I pray about it most sincerely. Third, I paint a mental picture of success. Fourth, I always ask myself, 'What is the right thing to do?' for," he said, "nothing will be right if it is wrong. Nothing that is wrong will ever come out right. Fifth, I give it all I've got. But let me emphasize again," he concluded, "if you're thinking defeat, change your thoughts at once. Get new and positive thoughts. That is primary and basic in overcoming difficulties and in achieving."

• P171. Seven practical steps for changing your mental attitude:

  • For the next twenty-four hours, deliberately speak hopefully about everything, about your job, about your health, about your future. Go out of your way to talk optimistically about everything. This will be difficult, for possibly it is your habit to talk pessimistically. From this negative habit, you must restrain yourself even if it requires an act of will.

  • After speaking hopefully for twenty-four hours, continue the practice for one week, then you can be permitted to be "realistic" for a day or two. You will discover that what you meant by "realistic" a week ago was actually pessimistic, but what you now mean by "realistic" is something entirely different; it is the dawning of the positive outlook. When most people say they are being "realistic," they delude themselves: they are simply being negative.

  • You must feed your mind even as you feed your body, and to make your mind healthy, you must feed it nourishing, wholesome thoughts. Therefore, today start to shift your mind from negative to positive thinking. Start at the beginning of the New Testament and underscore every sentence about faith. Continue doing this until you have marked every such passage in the four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Particularly note Mark 11, verses 22, 23, and 24. They will serve as samples of the verses you are to underscore and fix deeply in your consciousness.

  • Then commit the underscored passages to memory. Commit one each day until you can recite the entire list from memory. This will take time, but remember, you have consumed much more time becoming a negative thinker than this will require. Effort and time will be needed to unlearn your negative pattern.

  • Make a list of your friends to determine who is the most positive thinker among them, and deliberately cultivate their society. Do not abandon your negative friends, but get closer to those with a positive point of view, until you have absorbed their spirit, then you can go back among your negative friends and give them your newly acquired thought pattern without taking on their negativism.

  • Avoid argument, but whenever a negative attitude is expressed, counter with a positive and optimistic opinion.

  • Pray a great deal and always let your prayer take the form of thanksgiving on the assumption that God is giving you great and wonderful things; for if you think He is, He surely is. God will not give you any greater than you are equipped by faith to receive "according to your faith [that is, in proportion to] be it unto you" (Matthew 9:29).

• P181. "I have learned one important fact," the Congressman continued, "and that is in any situation be relaxed, keep calm, take a friendly attitude, have faith, do your best. Do this, and usually you can make things come out all right."

• P182. Here are ten rules for taking the hard way out of your job. Try these proven methods for working hard easily. They will help you to relax and have easy power.

  • Don't get the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. Don't strain so hard. Don't take yourself so seriously.

  • Determine to like your work. Then it will become a pleasure, not drudgery. Perhaps you do not need to change your job. Change yourself, and your work will seem different.

  • Plan your work—work your plan. Lack of system produces that "I'm swamped" feeling.

  • Don't try to do everything at once. That is why time is spread out. Heed that wise advice from the Bible, "This one thing I do" (Philippians 3:13).

  • Get a correct mental attitude, remembering that ease or difficulty in your work depends upon how you think about it. Think it's hard, and you make it hard. Think it's easy, and it tends to become easy.

  • Become efficient in your work. "Knowledge is power" (over your job). It is always easier to do a thing right.

  • Practice being relaxed. Easy always does it. Don't press or tug. Take it in your stride.

  • Discipline yourself not to put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Accumulation of undone jobs makes your work harder. Keep your work up to schedule.

  • Pray about your work. You will get relaxed efficiency by doing so.

  • Take on the "unseen partner." It is surprising the load He will take off you. God is as much at home in offices, factories, stores, and kitchens as in churches. He knows more about your job than you do. His help will make your work easy.

• P194. Whomever you help to build up and become a better, stronger, finer person will give you his undying devotion. Build up as many people as you can. Do it unselfishly. Do it because you like them and because you see possibilities in them. Do this and you will never lack for friends. You will always be well thought of. Build people up and love them genuinely. Do them good, and their esteem and affection will flow back toward you.

• P194. Practice them until you become an expert at them, and people will like you:

  • Learn to remember names. Inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing. A man's name is very important to him.

  • Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you—be an old-shoe, old-hat kind of individual. Be homey.

  • Acquire the quality of relaxed, easygoingness so that things do not ruffle you.

  • Don't be egotistical. Guard against giving the impression that you know it all. Be natural and normally humble.

  • Cultivate the quality of being interesting so that people will want to be with you and get something of stimulating value from their association with you.

  • Study to get the "scratchy" elements out of your personality, even those of which you may be unconscious.

  • Sincerely attempt to heal, on an honest Christian basis, every misunderstanding you have had or now have. Drain your grievances.

  • Practice liking people until you learn to do so genuinely. Remember what Will Rogers said, "I never met a man I didn't like." Try to be that way.

  • Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone's achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.

  • Get a deep spiritual experience so that you have something to give people that will help them to be stronger and meet life more effectively. Give strengths to people and they will give affection to you.