SOURCE-FAITHFUL STUDY
How To Verify A Neville Goddard Quote
A quotation is easier to understand when you can find it in the work it came from. Start with the wording, then identify the book or written lecture and read the surrounding passage. A familiar phrase, a search result or an AI answer is a lead to investigate, not a substitute for the original text.
Find the Original Source
Begin With The Source Title
Look for more than the author's name. A useful attribution identifies a book or a particular written lecture. For lectures, retain the date supplied by the preserved source and distinguish an exact date from a record known only by year. Do not turn an uncertain date into a precise one.
Neville sometimes used the same title for different works. Feeling Is the Secret is the title of his 1944 book and also a radio talk whose preserved header identifies July 1951 at KECA in Los Angeles. A quotation from one should not automatically be assigned to the other.
For example, the short sentence "The more intensely we feel, the sooner we will encounter it" appears in the preserved July 1951 radio transcript. It was not found in the owned searchable text of the 1944 book during this review. The shared title alone does not settle that attribution.
Feeling Is the Secret
A book is a distinct source, even when a later talk shares its title.
Read the bookFeeling Is the Secret
The preserved transcript identifies July 1951. No exact day is supplied.
Read the radio transcript
Search A Short Distinctive Phrase
Use a distinctive part of the quotation in the book or written-lecture search. If an exact search fails, try a shorter phrase. Differences in punctuation, typographic apostrophes or text extraction can affect a match. A failed first search is a reason to investigate, not proof that Neville never said it.
When you find a match, compare the whole sentence and its surrounding paragraph. A shortened extract can be authentic while leaving out a qualification or a change in subject. Keep the distinction between a direct quotation and your own explanation.
Read Before And After The Quotation
The surrounding text often explains whether Neville is discussing a practical assumption, quoting Scripture, retelling a case history or describing the Promise. Those contexts are not interchangeable. A quotation should help the reader return to the source, not replace the source with a slogan.
The quotation "You can persist in the assumption that you are wealthy" is traceable to A Lesson In Scripture, dated October 23, 1967 in the preserved written transcript. Reading beyond that sentence matters: the passage continues into Neville's discussion of desires and the hunger to understand Scripture.
“You can persist in the assumption that you are wealthy.”
A Lesson In Scripture · October 23, 1967
Keep The Attribution With Your Notes
Record the work's title, its supported date, the exact wording and a link to the relevant book guide or written transcript. If you paraphrase, label it as your summary. If you cannot locate the original, keep the attribution unverified rather than attaching a plausible-sounding book title.
Continue In The Original Sources
Keep the title and source link beside the quotation so you can return to its context.