Orison Swett Marden : "We make the world we live in and shape our own environment."

Orison Swett Marden (1850 - 1924) was an American writer associated with the New Thought Movement. He also held a degree in medicine, and was a successful hotel owner.

Born in New Hampshire, his mother died When he was 3, leaving Orison and his two sisters in the care of their father. When he was seven years old, his father died from injuries incurred while in the woods, and the children were shuttled from one guardian to another, with Orison working as a "hired boy" to earn his keep. Inspired by an early self-help book by the Scottish author Samuel Smiles, which he found in an attic, Marden set out to improve himself and his life circumstances. He persevered in advancing himself and graduated from Boston University in 1871. He later graduated from Harvard with an M.D. in 1881 and an LL.B. degree in 1882. He also studied at the Boston School of Oratory and Andover Theological Seminary.

Marden supported himself during his college years by working in a hotel and afterward by becoming the owner of several hotels and a resort. Financial reverses ended that career, and in 1893, he was again working as a hotel manager, in Chicago, during the time that the World's Columbian Exposition was attracting visitors to that city from all over the world. It was during this period that he began to write down his philosophical ideas, with the goal of inspiring others as he had been inspired by Samuel Smiles.

In addition to Smiles, Marden cited as influences on his thinking the works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and Ralph Waldo Emerson, both of whom were influential forerunners of what, by the 1890s, was called the New Thought Movement.

Marden's first book, Pushing to the Front, published in 1894, had a phenomenal circulation. In 1897 he founded Success Magazine, which reached the enormous circulation, for that time, of nearly a half-million, meaning of course that it was read by from two to three million readers. This publication ran into financial difficulties and suspended publication in 1912. But once again, 1n 1918, he founded a new Success which was rapidly climing in circulation when death ended his career, in 1924. He was a regular contributor to Elizabeth Towne's New Thought magazine Nautilus during the first two decades of the 20th century.

His book titles express eloquently the outlook of cheerful optimism and confidence. His writings are definitely in the New Thought tradition. Marden believed that our thoughts influence our lives and our life circumstances. He said, "We make the world we live in and shape our own environment." Yet although he is best known for his books on financial success, he always emphasized that this would come as a result of cultivating one's personal development.
Whether consciously or not, Orison Swett Marden was a definite and highly influential figure in the outreach of New Thought ideas into the general culture of his time.

"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself.
It is not in your environment;
it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others;
it is in yourself alone."