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William James

William James Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous William James Quotes

“Not that I would not, if I could, be both handsome and fat and well-dressed, and a great athlete, and make a million a year, be a wit, a bon-vivant, and a lady-killer, as well as a philosopher; a philanthropist, statesman, warrior, and African explorer, as well as a ‘tone poet’ and saint. But the thing is simply impossible…[T]o make any one of them actual, the rest must more or less be suppressed. So the seeker of his truest, strongest, deepest self must review the list carefully, and pick out the one on which to stake his salvation. All other selves thereupon become unreal”

LifeChoices
Book:The Principles of Psychology
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“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.”

LifeBelieveFactsHelpingLife IsBeliefFearExistencePositivePositive ThinkingInspirational LifeCreatingPhilosophicalPositivityWorthyPositive AttitudeThoughtfulBullyingGood LifeLive Your LifeEncouragingBullyPositive LifePositive OutlookWorth LivingMeaningful LifeInsperationalLiving OnBeing PositiveFacts Of LifeStay PositiveWorthinessGood ThoughtsThink PositivePower Of Positive ThinkingLife Worth LivingPositive Thinking And AttitudeKeep A Positive AttitudePositive Thinking AttitudeFears Of LifeLife Well LivedPositive InspirationalLife Is Worth LivingPositive Thinking SuccessLive Life To Its FullestThink Positive Be PositivePositive Attitude In LifeLife Is Not Worth LivingOne Tree Hill VoiceoverPower Of BeliefPositive Attitude And SuccessLiving In FearLiving Life WellPositive Thinking In LifeI Believe In YouLive Life Happy InspirationalPositive LivingLiving RealityStaying Positive In LifeYoung LifeAfraid Of LifeWork AttitudeComforting WordsCreating Your LifePositive Outlook On LifePositive Uplifting
Book:The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
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“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”

LifeInspirationalGivingUseMotivationalScienceLife IsDeathTimeGivenToo MuchPhilosophicalEntrepreneurCharityEntrepreneurshipThis LifeMaking A DifferenceLittle ThingsThings In LifePhilanthropyLife And LoveMarinePhilanthropicGiving InLife Worth LivingLife Is An AdventureLife TimeLife Is GoodSource Of LifeLife AdventureAdventure And LifeGiving To CharityLife Well LivedCharity And GivingInspirational CharityLife And TimeLife Is Worth LivingMarine LifeLife DreamGenerosity And GivingLife Is Not Worth LivingCaring Too MuchPhilanthropy GivingSea LifeHelping Others In NeedLife Is GreatGiving HelpRoad LifePhilanthropy InspirationYou Make A DifferenceLeaving A LegacyFeeling GreatGiven LifeWhat Is The Purpose Of LifePlanning ThingsOutlastingEnergy And LifeLasting LegacyGiving Too MuchSaying Too Much
Author:William James
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“If this life is not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight.”

IfsLifeFeelsMayRealSuccessLife IsFightingUniverseGamesThis LifeTheatrical
Book:The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, and Human Immortality
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“Human beings are born into this little span of life of which the best thing is its friendships and intimacies … and yet they leave their friendships and intimacies with no cultivation, to grow as they will by the roadside, expecting them to "keep" by force of mere inertia.”

LifeHumansLittlesForceGrowsBornFriendshipHuman BeingsFriendsMereIntimacyBest ThingsExpectingCultivationInertiaRoadside
Book:The Letters of William James
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“The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”

LifeMindHumansHappinessChangeHuman BeingsAttitudeGenerationsPositiveGreatnessPositive ThinkingRevolutionDiscoveryAspectInspirational AttitudeAddictionPositive AttitudeHuman MindWrestlingMy AttitudeOur GenerationLife WisdomPositive Thinking And AttitudeAspects Of LifeBest AttitudePositive Thinking AttitudeGreat AttitudeLife AttitudeLiving In The PastAttitude And LifeGreat Positive AttitudeChange Your AttitudeAttitudes And SuccessPositive Attitude And SuccessBrain PowerAddicts In RecoveryChanging AttitudeInspirational Addiction RecoveryMotivational AttitudeYou Can't Change The PastCan't Change The PastInspirational RecoveryBehavior And AttitudeChanging My MindSystems Change
Author:William James
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“Romeo wants Juliet as the filings want the magnet; and if no obstacles intervene he moves towards her by as straight a line as they. But Romeo and Juliet, if a wall be built between them, do not remain idiotically pressing their faces against its opposite sides like the magnet and the filings with the card. Romeo soon finds a circuitous way, by scaling the wall or otherwise, of touching Juliet's lips directly. With the filings the path is fixed; whether it reaches the end depends on accidents. With the lover it is the end which is fixed, the path may be modified indefinitely.”

IfsWayWantLifeMayEndsFacesMovingSidesLinesPathWallDependsLoversBuiltOppositesLipsObstaclesAccidentsCardsFixedTouchingMagnetJulietFiling
Book:The Principles of Psychology
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“We ought, all of us, to realize each other in this intense, pathetic, and important way. If you say that this is absurd, and that we cannot be in love with everyone at once, I merely point out to you that, as a matter of fact, certain persons do exist with an enormous capacity for friendship and for taking delight in other people's lives; and that such persons know more of truth than if their hearts were not so big.”

PeopleIfsKnowsLifeHeartPersonsMatterFactsBigsCertainOrdinaryCapacityIdealsAffectionVicesDelightEnormousAbsurdIntensityMatter Of FactExclusion
Author:William James
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“Fatalism, whose solving word in all crises of behavior is All striving is vain, will never reign supreme, for the impulse to take life strivingly is indestructible in the race. Moral creeds which speak to that impulse will be widely successful in spite of inconsistency, vagueness, and shadowy determination of expectancy. Man needs a rule for his will, and will invent one if one be not given him.”

IfsMenLifeNeedsSpeakGivenRaceMoralSuccessfulBehaviorDeterminationCrisisStriveSupremeVainImpulseSpiteFree WillCreedsReignInconsistencyIndestructibleExpectancyFatalismVagueness
Book:Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays
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“We are all potentially such sick men. The sanest and best of us are of one clay with lunatics and prison-inmates. And whenever we feel this, such a sense of the vanity of our voluntary career comes over us, that all our morality appears but as a plaster hiding a sore it can never cure, and all our well-doing as the hollowest substitute for that well-being that our lives ought to be grounded in, but alas! are not.”

MenLifeFeelsWellsCareersOur LivesOughtMoralitySickPrisonCuresVanityWell BeingSubstitutesHidingGroundedAlasClayInmatesPlastersSick Man
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.”

PeopleMenLifeInspirationalShouldLittlesSoulWholeUseMovingConsciousnessHabitResourcesFingersCirclesOrganismsSith
Author:William James
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“Most of us can learn to live in perfect comfort on higher levels of power. Everyone knows that on any given day there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. It is evident that our organism has stored-up reserves of energy that are ordinarily not called upon - deeper and deeper strata of explosible material, ready for use by anyone who probes so deep. The human individual usually lives far within his limits.”

KnowsLifeHumansUseIndividualEnergyGivenPerfectLevelsHalfPowerReadyMaterialsOughtHigherComfortLimitsAchievementIndividualityDeeperAwakeReservesOrganismsEvidentHigher LevelIncitement
Author:William James
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“What excites and interests the looker-on at life, what the romances and the statues celebrate, and the grim civic monuments remind us of, is the everlasting battle of the powers of light with those of darkness; with heroism reduced to its bare chance, yet ever and anon snatching victory from the jaws of death.”

LifeLightRomanceDeathInterestChanceDarknessVictoryBattleCelebrateHeroismEverlastingStatuesMonumentCivicsGrimLife DeathAnon
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
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