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William James

William James Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous William James Quotes

“Habit is the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all.”

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Author:William James
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“Don't preach too much to your pupils or abound in good talk in the abstract. Lie in wait rather for the practical opportunities, be prompt to seize those as they pass, and thus at one operation get your pupils both to think, to feel, and to do.”

ThinkingFeelsLyingOpportunityWaitingToo MuchHabitPracticalsOperationsAbstractPupilsPrompts
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
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“Plasticity, then, in the wide sense of the word, means the possession of a structure weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once. Each relatively stable phase of equilibrium in such a structure is marked by what we may call a new set of habits.”

MayMeanEnoughScienceStrongInfluenceHabitWeakStructurePossessionWideYieldStablePhasesStrong EnoughEquilibriumNomenclaturePlasticity
Book:The Principles of Psychology
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“Genius... means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.”

WayMeanLittlesScienceImaginationCreativityCreativeGeniusHabitInnovationFacultyBe CreativeBrillianceCreative PeopleCreative ThinkingCreativity And InnovationBusiness InnovationInnovation And BusinessCreative ImaginationScientific TruthImagination And CreativityInspiration And CreativityCreative ThoughtImagination CreativityCreative GeniusInnovation InspirationQuestioning BeliefsArtistic ProcessInspiration And InnovationRelated To CreativityArtistic Genius
Book:Psychology: The Briefer Course
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“Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor. It alone prevents the hardest and most repulsive walks of life from being deserted by those brought up to tread therein.”

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Author:William James
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“Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make very small use of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.”

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Author:William James
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“So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and when his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.”

MenSelfAttentionRocksHe ManHabitFellowsMortalsDenialTowersUnnecessaryBlastEnergeticSelf-denialVolitionUnnecessary Things
Book:The Heart of William James
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