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True to her inveterate habit, rationalism reverts to ‘principles,’ and thinks that when an abstraction once is named, we own an oracular solution.

William James

The general law is that no mental modification ever occurs which is not accompanied or followed by a bodily change.
WILLIAM JAMES

Law Medicine Philosophy
Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.
WILLIAM JAMES

Believe Faith Philosophical
The first lecture in psychology that I ever heard was the first I ever gave.
WILLIAM JAMES

Firsts Lecture Psychology
Organization and method mean much, but contagious human characters mean more in a university.
WILLIAM JAMES

Character Mean Organization
Every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
WILLIAM JAMES

Agony Individual Lonely
Man, biologically considered … is simply the most formidable of all beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own kind.
WILLIAM JAMES

Beast Kind Men
On pragmatistic principles, if the hypothesis of God works satisfactorily in the widest sense of the word, it is true.
WILLIAM JAMES

God Principles Theism
The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.
WILLIAM JAMES

Allies Education Enemy
Our intelligence cannot wall itself up alive, like a pupa in a chrysalis. It must at any cost keep on speaking terms with the universe that engendered it.
WILLIAM JAMES

Alive Cost Wall
Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation.
WILLIAM JAMES

Facts Philosophy Way
To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.
WILLIAM JAMES

Abnormal Philosophical Understanding
It seems the natural thing for us to listen whilst the Europeans talk.
WILLIAM JAMES

Natural Political Politics
There can be no difference anywhere that does not make a difference somewhere.
WILLIAM JAMES

Differences Making Somewhere
Truth for us is simply a collective name for verification processes
WILLIAM JAMES

Names Process Truth
Success plus Self-esteem equals Pretensions.
WILLIAM JAMES

Congratulations Self Esteem Success
In the matter of belief, we are all extreme conservatives.
WILLIAM JAMES

Belief Extremes Matter
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.
WILLIAM JAMES

Men Mind Way
Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming.
WILLIAM JAMES

Becoming Gone Instant
Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system
WILLIAM JAMES

Credit Facts Truth
It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
WILLIAM JAMES

Believe Government Philosophical
Facts’ are the bounds of human knowledge, set for it, not by it.
WILLIAM JAMES

Facts Knowledge Science
The total possible consciousness may be split into parts which co-exist but mutually ignore each other.
WILLIAM JAMES

Consciousness May Splits
Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.
WILLIAM JAMES

Differences Everything Insightful Making
Procrastination is attitude’s natural assassin. There’s nothing so fatiguing as an uncompleted task
WILLIAM JAMES

Attitude Procrastination Tasks
Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
WILLIAM JAMES

Emergencies Encouragement Sith
[Religion is] the attempt to be in harmony with an unseen order of things.
WILLIAM JAMES

Grace Order Unseen
It is very important that teachers should realize the importance of habit.
WILLIAM JAMES

Important Realizing Teacher

True to her inveterate habit, rationalism reverts to ‘principles,’ and thinks that when an abstraction once is named, we own an oracular solution.

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True to her inveterate habit, rationalism reverts to ‘principles,’ and thinks that when an abstraction once is named, we own an oracular solution.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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