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The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.

William James

Religion . . . shall mean for us the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in their solitude.
WILLIAM JAMES

Mean Men Solitude
A new opinion counts as true just in proportion as it gratifies the individual’s desire to assimilate the novel in his experience to his beliefs in stock
WILLIAM JAMES

Belief Desire Truth
Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.
WILLIAM JAMES

Humorous Life Philosophical
Asceticism may be a mere expression of organic hardihood, disgusted with too much ease.
WILLIAM JAMES

Asceticism Ease Expression
A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.
WILLIAM JAMES

Change Dream Inspirational
Mankind’s common instinct for reality has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism.
WILLIAM JAMES

Heroism Reality Theatre
Men habitually use only a small part of the power which they actually possess.
WILLIAM JAMES

Men Parts Small Use
Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
WILLIAM JAMES

Emergencies Encouragement Sith
A sense of humor is just common sense dancing.
WILLIAM JAMES

Common Dance Humor Sense
Earnestness means willingness to live with energy, though energy bring pain.
WILLIAM JAMES

Energy Mean Pain
When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion, action will.
WILLIAM JAMES

Action Emotion Inspiration
No one sees further into a generalization than his own knowledge of detail extends.
WILLIAM JAMES

Details Generalization Knowledge
Tension is a habit. Relaxing is a habit. Bad habits can be broken, good habits formed.
WILLIAM JAMES

Broken Funny Habit
Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation.
WILLIAM JAMES

Facts Philosophy Way
In the matter of belief, we are all extreme conservatives.
WILLIAM JAMES

Belief Extremes Matter
… the intellect, everywhere invasive, shows everywhere its shallowing effect.
WILLIAM JAMES

Effects Intellect Shows
If merely ‘feeling good’ could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.
WILLIAM JAMES

Alcohol Feel Feelings Good
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
WILLIAM JAMES

Fear Happiness Stress
We can change our circumstances by a mere change of our attitude.
WILLIAM JAMES

Attitude Circumstances Mere
Wisdom is learning what to overlook.
WILLIAM JAMES

Learning Philosophical Wisdom
We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.
WILLIAM JAMES

Opposites Statement Truth
The emotions aren’t always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action.
WILLIAM JAMES

Action Emotional Feelings
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
There can be no difference anywhere that does not make a difference somewhere.
WILLIAM JAMES

Differences Making Somewhere
There can be no existence of evil as a force to the healthy-minded individual.
WILLIAM JAMES

Evil Healthy Individual
The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
WILLIAM JAMES

Inspirational Life Motivational
Truth, as any dictionary will tell you, is a property of certain of our ideas. It means their agreement, as falsity means their disagreement, with reality.
WILLIAM JAMES

Mean Reality Truth

The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.

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The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.

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Popular Authors

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