Ralph Waldo Trine (October 26, 1866 - November 8, 1958) was an American philosopher, author, and teacher. He wrote many books on the New Thought movement. Trine was a close friend of Henry Ford and had several conversations with him about success in life.
Born September 9, 1866,[1] in Mount Morris, Illinois,[2] Trine was the son of Samuel G. Trine and Ellen E. Newcomer.[3] He attended public school, and after graduating from high school at the age of 16 he began work as a farmer and lumberjack.[4] Later he worked as a bank teller for a time before going to college.
Trine was influenced by writings of Emmet Fox, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Drummond.[3][8] Trine's book "What All the World's A-Seeking" amplified on ideas and concepts Drummond brought up originally in his book, "The Greatest Thing in the World and Other Addresses". Trine's primary work, "In Tune with the Infinite" was published in 1897.[12] It has been translated into some twenty languages and millions of copies have been sold.[3][13] It was a favorite of Queen Victoria and Janet Gaynor. Henry Ford attributed his automobile business and financial success to ideas he picked up from Trine's book. He gave away copies of Trine's book to executive industrialists he knew. Ford considered Trine an old friend and had several intimate conversations with him about life and success.[3][18][19] He attributed many aspects of his success in life directly to these talks with Trine.
Trine was a philosopher and teacher besides being the author of many books related to the New Thought movement.[3] He was introduced to the movement in the late nineteenth-century and was an advocate in the early twentieth-century of the related ideas.[3] He was one of the first of its representatives to write books on it.[3] His writings had an influence on other religious people including Ernest Holmes, a pioneer of Religious Science.[26] Trine's books of the early twentieth-century on New Thought ideas have promoted and sold more than any other of this genre.[7] The basic principles that Trine wrote about were later published by other self-help authors like Napoleon Hill, David Schwartz and Brian Tracy
