The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers.
WILLIAM JAMESMan, whatever else he may be, is primarily a practical being, whose mind is given him to aid in adapting him to this world’s life
More William James Quotes
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Modern man . . . has not ceased to be credulous . . . the need to believe haunts him.
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There can be no difference anywhere that does not make a difference somewhere.
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Real culture lives by sympathies and admirations, not by dislikes and disdains; under all misleading wrappings it pounces unerringly upon the human core.
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Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions.
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The God of many men is little more than their court of appeal against the damnatory judgment passed on their failures by the opinion of the world.
WILLIAM JAMES -
Our beliefs are really rules for action.
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We must be careful not to confuse data with the abstractions we use to analyse them.
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Facts’ are the bounds of human knowledge, set for it, not by it.
WILLIAM JAMES -
Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world.
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I am well aware how odd it must seem to some of you to hear me say that an idea is true so long as to believe it is profitable to our lives
WILLIAM JAMES -
The total possible consciousness may be split into parts which co-exist but mutually ignore each other.
WILLIAM JAMES -
All natural happiness thus seems infected with a contradiction. The breath of the sepulchre surrounds it.
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Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don’t want to do
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You can alter your life by altering the state of your mind.
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We may be in the Universe as dogs and cats are in our libraries, seeing the books and hearing the conversation, but having no inkling of the meaning of it all.
WILLIAM JAMES