William James Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about William James

William James Quotes & Sayings

Happy to read and share the best inspirational William James quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.

To love, to be loved, and to be useful: these are the most important elements in a happy, meaningful life, and they can be achieved anywhere. — Syrie James

The mind, in short, works on the data it receives very much as the sculptor works on his block of stone. — William James

Events are influenced by our very great desires. — William James

The intellect, everywhere invasive, shows everywhere its shallowing effect. — William James

Man lives for science as well as bread. — William James

I'm not concerned with whether you got to the top. I want to know how far you climbed. That is where the real achievement is found. — William James Moore

Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest, which co-mingle their roots in the darkness underground. — William James

As a rule reading fiction is as hard to me as trying to hit a target by hurling feathers at it. I need resistance to celebrate! — William James

Work usually follows will. — William James

The work that leads to a doctor's degree is a constant temptation to sacrifice one's growth as a man to one's growth as a specialist. — William James

What holds attention determines action. — William James

Life shall be built in doing and suffering and creating. — William James

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him. — William James

Truth in our ideas means their power to work. — William James

To spend life for something which outlasts it. — William James

I gave all up to him to do with me as he pleased, and was willing that God should rule over me at his pleasure, — William James

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible. — William James

Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them. — William James

I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences. — William James

That which is most personal, is most interesting. — William James

You can't out-perform your self-image. — William James

The greatest empiricists among us are only empiricists on reflection: when left to their instincts, they dogmatize like infallible popes. — William James

I will assume for the present
until next year
that it is no illusion. My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will. — William James

Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark. — William James

In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering. — William James

I am tired of the position of the dried-up critic and doubter. The believer is the true full man. (from a biography of James by Robert D. Richardson) — William James

Evil is a disease; and worry over disease is itself an additional form of disease, which only adds to the original complaint. — William James

Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens out the widest vistas. — William James

The good or bad is not in the circumstance, but only in the mind ... that encounters it. — William James

No bell in us tolls to let us know for certain when truth is in our grasp. — William James

Why may we not be in the universe, as our dogs and cats are in our drawingrooms and libraries? — William James

If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick. — William James

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

Damn the Absolute! — William James

As long as there are postmen, life will have zest. — William James

A man with no philosophy in him is the most inauspicious and unprofitable of all possible social mates. — William James

The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires. — William James

The amount of psychology which is necessary to all teachers need not be very great. — William James

It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association — William James

The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party. — William James

David McKay, 1900. Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward, Angel. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1929. Yeats, William Butler. A Vision — James Hollis

Never underestimate the capacity of people to choose the easy way. — William James Moore

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. — William James

In any project the important factor is your belief. Without belief, there can be no successful outcome. — William James

Science as such assuredly has no authority, for she can only say what is, not what is not. — William James

There can be no existence of evil as a force to the healthy-minded individual. — William James

The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. — William James

The essence of genius is to know what to overlook. — William James

All religions and spiritual traditions begin with the cry Help! — William James

To know is one thing, and to know for certain that we know is another. One — William James

Equality is attainable as long as you are part of the majority. — William James

To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. — William James

Truth happens to an idea — William James

Strength is a facade for the proud, weakness is a mask for the lazy. — William James

To change one's life:
1. Start immediately.
2. Do it flamboyantly.
3. No exceptions. — William James

Most men's friendships are too inarticulate. — William James

A difference which makes no difference is no difference at all. — William James

Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference. — William James

I will act as if I do make a difference. — William James

the Christian who seems to be so overmatched, is yet so unconquerable, II Cor. 12:9; James 5:11. — William Gurnall

Time itself comes in drops. — William James

No one sees further into a generalization than his own knowledge of detail extends. — William James

When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome. — William James

An idea will infect another with its own emotional interest when they have become both associated together into any sort of a mental total. — William James

Circumstance does not make me, it reveals me. — William James

Action and feeling go together, and by regulating the action ... we can directly regulate the feeling. — William James

Act the part and you will become the part. — William James

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

You may not get everything you dream about, but you will never get anything you don't dream about. — William James

The instinct of ownership is fundamental in man's nature. — William James

A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows. — William James

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible. — William James

There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood bu those who hear it. — William James

The thinker philosophizes as the lover loves. Even were the consequences not only useless but harmful, he must obey his impulse. — William James

For morality life is a war, and the service of the highest is a sort of cosmic patriotism which also calls for volunteers. — William James

Experience is the great teacher; unfortunately, experience leaves mental scars, and scar tissue contracts. — William James Mayo

When making the problem go away is more important than solving the problem leadership begins to fail. The easy way vs. The character way. — William James Moore

Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. Not through mere perversity do men run after it. — William James

The education of attention would be an education par excellence — William James

We believe as much as we can. We would believe everything if we could. — William James

We can change our circumstances by a mere change of our attitude. — William James

Formula to live your dream: 1. Be bold. 2. Begin now, 3. No exceptions. — William James

You do not sing because you're happy, you're happy because you sing. — William James

Fear of life in one form or another is the great thing to exorcise. — William James

Man lives in only one small room of the enormous house of his consciousness. — William James

Deepest principle of human nature is to be appreciated. — William James

It is an interesting thing, love ," the Princess stated. "It can turn lambs into heroes, and heroes into lambs. — James William Peercy

My thinking is first and last and always for the sake of my doing. — William James

As I apprehend the Buddhist doctrine of karma, I agree in principle with that. — William James

William James was not a prophet. He was a philosopher whose philosophy reflected his profound humanity. — Stanley Hauerwas

Language is the most imperfect and expensive means yet discovered for communicating thought. — William James

Instincts are things that you know but can not, as of yet, articulate — William James Moore

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking. — William James

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice. — William James

Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality. — William James

The squalid cash interpretation put on the word success - is our national disease. — William James

A man may not achieve everything he has dreamed, but he will never achieve anything great without having dreamed it first. — William James

We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone. — William James

He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed. — William James

The greatest weapon we have to combat stress is the ability to choose our thoughts. — William James