meant to
live in poverty and wretchedness. _The lack of anything that is
desirable is not natural to the constitution of any human being_.

Erase all the shadows, all the doubts and fears, and the suggestions of
poverty and failure from your mind. When you have become master of
your thought, when you have once learned to dominate your mind, you
will find that things will begin to come your way. Discouragement,
fear, doubt, lack of self-confidence, are the germs which have killed
the prosperity and happiness of tens of thousands of people.

Every man must play the part of his ambition. If you are trying to be
a successful man you must play the part. If you are trying to
demonstrate opulence, you must play it, not weakly, but vigorously,
grandly. You must feel opulent, you must think opulence, you must
appear opulent. Your bearing must be filled with confidence. You must
give the impression of your own assurance, that you are large enough to
play your part and to play it superbly. Suppose the greatest actor
living were to have a play written for him in which the leading part
was to represent a man in the process of making a fortune--a great,
vigorous, progressive character, who conquered by his very presence.
Suppose this actor, in playing the part, were to dress like an
unprosperous man, walk on the stage in a stooping, slouchy, slipshod
manner, as though he had no ambition, no energy or life, as though he
had no real faith that he could ever make money or be a success in
business; suppose he went around the stage with an apologetic,
shrinking, skulking manner, as much as to say, "Now, I do not believe
that I can ever do this thing that I have attempted; it is too big for
me. Other people have done it, but I never thought that I should ever
be rich or prosperous. Somehow good things do not seem to be meant for
me. I am just an ordinary man, I haven't had much experience and I
haven't much confidence in myself, and it seems presumptuous for me to
think I am ever going to be rich or have much influence in the world."
What kind of an impression would he make upon the audience? Would he
give confidence, would he radiate power or forcefulness, would he make
people think that that kind of a weakling could create a fortune, could
manipulate conditions which would produce money? Would not everybody
say that the man was a failure? Would they not laugh at the idea of
his conquering anything?

_Poverty itself is