Text of the meditation
Everyone is a mind-builder. Pure thoughts, wisely chosen and well placed, are so many durable bricks that will never crumble away, and from which a finished and beautiful building, one that affords comfort and shelter for its possessor, can be rapidly erected. Bracing thoughts of strength, of confidence, of duty; inspiring thoughts of a large, free, unfettered and unselfish life are useful bricks with which a substantial mind-temple can be raised; and the building of such a temple requires that old and useless habits of thought be broken down and destroyed. "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, as the swift seasons roll." Each person is the builder of themselves.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.