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Book · 1925

The Game of Life and How to Play It

Florence Scovel Shinn · Mentoring Center →


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The Game of Life — Rules and Principles

Life as a Game with Rules

Florence Scovel Shinn opened her most famous work with a bold proposition: "Most people consider life a battle, but it is not a battle, it is a game." She went further to explain that it is a game of giving and receiving — a game governed by spiritual laws that, once understood, allow anyone to win.

The spiritual laws Shinn described are not arbitrary rules imposed from outside. They are principles woven into the fabric of reality itself, as predictable as gravity. When you work with them, life flows. When you work against them, life resists.

The four primary laws Shinn described in "The Game of Life" are: the law of prosperity, the law of karma (what you send out returns), the law of forgiveness, and the law of nonresistance.