black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

The question of free will is insoluble on strictly psychological grounds.

William James

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

Facts Philosophy Way
I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.
WILLIAM JAMES

Happiness Music Philosophical
The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.
WILLIAM JAMES

Devil Feet Long
The total possible consciousness may be split into parts which co-exist but mutually ignore each other.
WILLIAM JAMES

Consciousness May Splits
Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.
WILLIAM JAMES

Humorous Life Philosophical
With no attempt there can be no failure; with no failure no humiliation.
WILLIAM JAMES

Attempt Failure Humiliation No
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
WILLIAM JAMES

Exercise Inspiration Somebody Two
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

Believe Ideas Truth
New habits can be launched.
WILLIAM JAMES

Habit New Launched
The true’to put it very briefly, is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as ‘the right’ is only the expedient in the way of our behaving.
WILLIAM JAMES

Briefly Thinking True Way
Truth for us is simply a collective name for verification processes
WILLIAM JAMES

Names Process Truth
The intellectual life of man consists almost wholly in his substitution of conceptual order for the perceptual order in which his experience originally comes.
WILLIAM JAMES

Intellectual Men Order
But facts are facts, and if we only get enough of them theyare sure to combine.
WILLIAM JAMES

Combine Enough Fact Facts
Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world.
WILLIAM JAMES

Contribution Effort World
The strenuous life tastes better
WILLIAM JAMES

Better Strenuous Taste
The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.
WILLIAM JAMES

Die Education Philosophical
If merely ‘feeling good’ could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.
WILLIAM JAMES

Alcohol Feel Feelings Good
Both thought and feeling are determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or by thought.
WILLIAM JAMES

Determine Feelings May
The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.
WILLIAM JAMES

Ideas Men Twenties
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

Habit Principles Thinking
The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.
WILLIAM JAMES

Philosophical Prayer Worry
Success plus Self-esteem equals Pretensions.
WILLIAM JAMES

Congratulations Self Esteem Success
Wisdom is learning what to overlook.
WILLIAM JAMES

Learning Philosophical Wisdom
Focus on increasing service. Becoming great where you are. Pile in the wood. The heat will follow.
WILLIAM JAMES

Becoming Great Focus Woods
True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those that we cannot
WILLIAM JAMES

Ideas Truth Verify
The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
WILLIAM JAMES

Inspirational Life Motivational
Organization and method mean much, but contagious human characters mean more in a university.
WILLIAM JAMES

Character Mean Organization

The question of free will is insoluble on strictly psychological grounds.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

The question of free will is insoluble on strictly psychological grounds.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More William James Quotes