Quotes by William James

William James

William James

American philosopher

Lived from: 1842 - 1910

Category: Philosophers Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 11 january 1842 Died: 26 august 1910

  • A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
  • Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.
  • Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.
  • Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout.
  • The difference between a good man and a bad is the choice of the cause.
  • The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.
  • Smitten as we are with the vision of social righteousness, a God indifferent to everything but adulation, and full of partiality for his individual favorites, lacks an essential element of largeness.
  • We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.
  • I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds.
  • If merely ''feeling good'' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.
  • The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
  • Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.
  • Men's activities are occupied into ways - in grappling with external circumstances and in striving to set things at one in their own topsy-turvy mind.
  • As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.
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  • A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.
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  • A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
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  • Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
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  • An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.
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  • Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.
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  • Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.
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  • Genius... means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an inhabitual way.
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  • The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.
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  • There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.
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  • We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition.
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  • A great many
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  • A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.
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  • A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.
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  • Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
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  • Act in earnest and you will become earnest in all you do.
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  • Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.
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  • Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.
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  • As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.
    ― William James
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  • Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
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  • Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
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What are the most famous quotes from William James?

The two most famous quotes from William James are:

  • "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain."
  • "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

When did William James live?

William James was born in 1842 and died in the year 1910.