Wallace D. Wattles

Wallace D. Wattles is best known for The Science of Getting Rich, published in 1910. The book belongs to New Thought’s prosperity literature, but it is not merely a call to optimism. Its chapters connect desire for money to a spiritual account of the universe, gratitude, a formed mental image and what Wattles calls “efficient action.” Reading the primary text makes the full mixture visible, including elements later summaries tend to leave out.

Wattles calls his account a science and asserts that a “certain way” leads to wealth. He explicitly asks readers to accept foundational statements on faith and frames economic outcomes as the consequence of thought and action within a spiritual order. That is a religious-philosophical argument, not an evidence-based economic model. It cannot account for unequal access to capital, labour conditions, discrimination, inheritance, public policy or chance; it should never be used to assign private fault for financial hardship.

The book’s lasting influence comes partly from its compactness: it turns an overwhelming subject into a sequence of inward postures and outward acts. That can be comforting, yet simplicity is also its ethical blind spot. A careful reader might retain one limited question—whether a goal is specific enough to guide a next action—while declining the premise that belief is a reliable route to wealth. That keeps attention on agency without erasing circumstance.