William James Quotes.
Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout.
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.
Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.
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.
To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.
The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.
If you can change your mind, you can change your life.
You may not get everything you dream about, but you will never get anything you don’t dream about.
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.
Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.
‘Pure experience’ is the name I gave to the immediate flux of life which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories.
Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.
In business for yourself, not by yourself.
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.
What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!
A winner’s attitude: it may be difficult, but it’s possible. A loser’s attitude: It may be possible, but it’s too difficult.
