Florence Scovel Shinn
American illustrator, author, and New Thought teacher whose 1925 book The Game of Life and How to Play It became one of the foundational texts of the modern prosperity-and-affirmation tradition — a direct ancestor of every twentieth and twenty-first century 'law of attraction' book from Napoleon Hill to Louise Hay to Esther Hicks. Born 1871 in Camden, New Jersey, into a Quaker family, Shinn trained as an illustrator at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and worked as a commercial artist (illustrating children's books and the popular Anchor Magazine) before turning, in mid-life, to spiritual writing and teaching. Her three principal books — The Game of Life and How to Play It (1925), Your Word Is Your Wand (1928), and The Secret Door to Success (1940) — laid out a practical, biblical-scripture-laced metaphysics in which life is 'a game of giving and receiving' governed by precise spiritual laws (the law of attraction, the law of forgiveness, the law of nonresistance, the law of substitution). She died in New York City in 1940. Her books are now in the public domain and continue to sell millions of copies worldwide.
quotes in library
Quotes by Florence Scovel Shinn
111 quotes“Most people consider life a battle, but it is not a battle. It is a game.”
“It is, however, a game which cannot be played successfully without the knowledge of spiritual law.”
“And the Old and the New Testaments give the rules of the game with wonderful clearness.”
“Jesus Christ taught that it was a great game of giving and receiving.”
“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
“This means that whatever a man sends out in word or deed, will return to him.”
“What he gives, he shall receive.”
“If he gives hate, he will receive hate.”
“If he gives love, he will receive love.”
“If he gives criticism, he will receive criticism.”
“If he lies he will be lied to. If he cheats he will be cheated.”
“This is the great law of life.”
“There is power in your spoken word.”
“Every word is a wand.”
“It builds. It destroys. It heals. It harms.”
“Choose your words with reverence.”
“They are creating your life.”
“All sickness comes from a violation of spiritual law, just as all unhappiness comes from a violation of spiritual law.”
“Life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds, and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy.”
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