The contents of this volume originally appeared as weekly articles by Lord Beaverbrook (William Maxwell Aitken) in the Sunday Express.

In this little work we have endeavored to call your attention to something of far greater importance than a mere code of rules and general advice.

A successful man is always asked - What is the secret of your success? People never ask a man who is a failure, What is the secret of your failure?

I looked around upon the world, and saw that it was shadowed by sorrow and scorched by the fierce fires of suffering. And I looked for the cause.

We all know that in order to accomplish a certain thing we must concentrate. It is of the utmost value to learn how to concentrate.

It is a truth that there is very often an extremely easy, simple and prosaic way to attain many an end, which has always been supposed to require stupendous efforts.

Are you an unusually persevering and persistent person? Or, like most of us, do you sometimes find it difficult to stick to the job until it is done?

The chief glory of America is, that it is the country in which genius and industry find their speediest and surest reward.

In commencing a course of lectures on Mental Science, it is somewhat difficult for the lecturer to fix upon the best method of opening the subject.

Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only to set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means.

It is a strange and almost amusing fact that there should be at the same time, on the part of the general public, such a general acceptance of the existence of personal magnetism.

As a working unit you are a kind of one-man business corporation made up of two departments, the mental and the physical.

The Blind Traveler, James Holman, was a British adventurer who undertook a number of lone journeys unprecedented through history in their distance and methodology.

What Do You Want Most? Is It Money, Fame, Power, Contentment, Personality, Peace of Mind, Happiness?

One of the most famous non-fiction American books, Walden by Henry David Thoreau is the history of Thoreau's visit to Ralph Waldo Emerson's woodland retreat near Walden Pond.

Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s, and first published in 1598.

As You Like It is truly one of Shakespeare's greatest romantic comedies.

Although originally classified as one of Shakespeare's comedies, All's Well That Ends Well is now more commonly classified as one of his ambiguous problem plays, so called because they defy neat classification as either comedy or tragedy.

Although Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar is named after the legendary Roman political leader, the central character is thought by many to be Marcus Brutus, Caesar's friend turned foe who struggles throughout the play with conflicting obligations.

The Taming of the Shrew is perhaps one of Shakespeare's most controversial plays by modern standards.