Many years before the current surge of interest in the Law of Attraction, author Prentice Mulford wrote what we talk about and think about is what we attract to ourselves in our lives. Prentice Mulford was instrumental in the founding of the popular philosophy New Thought, along with other notable writers including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Mulford's book, Thoughts are Things, served as a guide to this new belief system and is still popular today. He explained how, for example, people who talk about suffering eventually bring suffering to themselves in some form. While there are many today who are familiar with these metaphysical ideas, Mulford also discusses many thought-power topics that are less widely known. Thoughts Are Things is a classic book when it was first published in 1889 and is just as timely and relevant today.

The first articulator of the law of attraction as general principle was Prentice Mulford and was followed by other New Thought authors. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, and You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay are just a few best sellers to follow and expand the principles. The revived and modernized version of the law of attraction is known as manifestation.