Quotes by William James with reason

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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  • 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.
    ― William James
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  • How can the moribund old man reason back to himself the romance, the mystery, the imminence of great things with which our old earth tingled for him in the days when he was young and well?
    ― William James
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