Harold W. Percival

Harold Waldwin Percival (15 April 1868 – 6 March 1953) was a Theosophist and writer who founded The Word Foundation.

Thinking and Destiny (1946)

 * Thinking and Destiny: With a Brief Account of the Descent of Man Into this Human World, and How he will Return To the Eternal Order of Progression (PDF)


 * This book was dictated to Benoni B. Gattell at intervals between the years 1912 and 1932. Since then it has been worked over again and again. Now, in 1946, there are few pages that have not been at least slightly changed.
 * Author's Forward, p. xxi


 * I do not presume to preach to anyone; I do not consider myself a preacher or a teacher. Were it not that I am responsible for the book, I would prefer that my personality be not named as its author. The greatness of the subjects about which I offer information, relieves and frees me from self-conceit and forbids the plea of modesty.
 * Author's Forward, p. xxi


 * From November of 1892 I passed through astonishing and crucial experiences, following which, in the spring of 1893, there occurred the most extraordinary event of my life. I had crossed 14th Street at 4th Avenue, in New York City. Cars and people were hurrying by. While stepping up to the northeast corner curbstone, Light, greater than that of myriads of suns opened in the center of my head. In that instant or point, eternities were apprehended. There was no time. Distance and dimensions were not in evidence.
 * Author's Forward, p. xxv


 * You will not be, you cannot be, satisfied with anything less than Self-knowledge. You, as feeling-and-desire, are the responsible doer of your Triune Self; from what you have made for yourself as your destiny you must learn two great lessons which all experiences of life are to teach. These lessons are:
 * What to do, and, What not to do.
 * You may put these lessons off for as many lives as you please, or learn them as soon as you will — that is for you to decide, but in the course of time you will learn them.
 * Introduction, p. 24


 * This is the law: Every thing existing on the physical plane is an exteriorization of thought, which must be balanced through the one who issued the thought, and in accordance with that one’s responsibility, at the conjunction of time, condition, and place.
 * Ch. 2 : The Purpose and Plan of the Universe, p. 28


 * Accidents and chance are words used by persons who do not think clearly when they attempt to account for certain happenings. Anyone who thinks must be convinced that in a world as orderly as this there is no room for the words accident and chance.
 * Ch. 3, Objections to the law of thought, p. 48


 * A thought has no size in the physical sense but is vast as compared to the physical acts and objects into which it is later precipitated. The power of a thought is enormous and superior to all the successive physical acts, objects, and events that body forth its energy. A thought often endures for a time much greater than the whole life of the man who thought it.
 * Ch. 4 : Operation of the Law of Thought, p. 75


 * Therefore public officials in monarchies, oligarchies and democracies, are as bad as they are. They are the representatives of the people; in them the thoughts of the people have taken form. Those who are not in office would do as the present officials do, or even worse, if they had the opportunity. Corrupt officials can hold office and sinecures only so long as the thoughts of the people are depraved. 
 * Ch. 5, Physical Destiny, p. 138


 * Yes, there is a Government of this changing world. The Government is not in the changing world. It is in the Realm of Permanence, and though the Realm of Permanence pervades this world of change, it cannot be seen by mortal eyes. 
 * Ch. 5, Physical Destiny, p. 143


 * Consciousness is the ultimate Reality; compared with it, all else is illusion.
 * Ch. 9, Re-Existence, p. 620


 * In every age a few individuals do find The Great Way. They do conquer death by regenerating and restoring their bodies to the Realm of Permanence.
 * Ch. 11, The Great Way, p. 699


 * For you it is possible to do anything; the only thing impossible for you to do is to do wrong, inasmuch as you are knowledge and justice and love.
 * Ch. 14, Thinking: The Way to Conscious Immortality, p. 943

Quotes about Percival

 * Because Thinking and Destiny is so rich with inspired information, most of which requires extensive study, I have prepared The Path to introduce readers to those concepts in Percival’s book which are the easiest to comprehend. These are taken directly from Thinking and Destiny, most of the statements in this book being in Percival’s own words. It is essential that all men and women become aware of what they are, why they are here on Earth and what they must do to preserve civilization before it is too late. I believe that the beginning of this awareness can be found in The Path.
 * Richard Matheson, in his Introduction to The Path: Metaphysics for the 90’s (1993), published by The Word Foundation, Inc. ISBN 091165013X