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Quote by William James

“An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing: "There is very little difference between one man and another; but what little there is, is very important." This distinction seems to me to go to the root of the matter.”

Quote by William James

Book:The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy

Work

The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy

This book is a compilation of essays that delve into the nature of belief and its role in human life, examining various philosophical perspectives on faith and the search for meaning. more

Author

William James, born on January 11, 1842, and died on August 26, 1910, was an influential American philosopher, psychologist, and writer. He is considered one of the founders of functionalism in psychology and has had a profound impact on the fields of psychology, philosophy, and religion. more

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“Modern transcendental idealism, Emersonianism, for instance, also seems to let God evaporate into abstract Ideality. Not a deity in concreto, not a superhuman person, but the immanent divinity in things, the essentially spiritual structure of the universe, is the object of the transcendentalist cult. In that address of the graduating class at Divinity College in 1838 which made Emerson famous, the frank expression of this worship of mere abstract laws was what made the scandal of the performance.”

“We can act as if there were a God; feel as if we were free; consider Nature as if she were full of special designs; lay plans as if we were to be immortal; and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life.”

Ifs Feels Differences Moral Plans Special Design Lays Genuine Immortal Moral Life

Author:William James

“We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy, charity, and non-resistance may be, and often have been, manifested in excess. ... You will agree to this in general, for in spite of the Gospel, in spite of Quakerism, in spite of Tolstoi, you believe in fighting fire with fire, in shooting down usurpers, locking up thieves, and freezing out vagabonds and swindlers.”

Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience

“If things are ever to move upward, some one must take the first step, and assume the risk of it. No one who is not willing to try charity, to try non-resistance as the saint is always willing, can tell whether these methods will or will not succeed.”

Ifs Trying Firsts Moving Steps Risk Willing Succeed Method Assuming Charity Saint Resistance First Steps Willing To Try

Book:Writings, 1902-1910

Source: Writings, 1902-1910

“But petitional prayer is only one department of prayer; and if we take the word in the wider sense as meaning every kind of inward communion or conversation with the power recognized as divine, we can easily see that scientific criticism leaves it untouched. Prayer in this wide sense is the very soul and essence of religion.”

Ifs Kind Soul Prayer Divine Conversation Criticism Essence Wide Department Inward Communion

Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature

Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature

“So long as antimilitarists propose no substitute for war's disciplinary function, no moral equivalent of war, analogous, as one might say, to the mechanical equivalent of heat, so long they fail to realize the full inwardness of the situation.”

Long War Might Realizing Situation Moral Failing Function Heat Substitutes Propose

Book:William James: Essays and Lectures

Source: William James: Essays and Lectures

“As the art of reading (after a certain stage in one's education) isthe art of skipping, so the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”

Art Certain Reading Knowing Wise Stage Being Wise

Author:William James

“Hogamus, higamous Man is polygamous Higamus, hogamous Woman monogamous.”

Author:William James

“I think everything is pretty well preordained - even your mistakes.”

Thinking Wells Mistake

Author:Mel Gibson

“As we take, in fact, a general view of the wonderful stream of our consciousness, what strikes us first is this different pace of its parts. Like a bird 's life, it seems to be made of an alternation of flights and perchings.”

Firsts Made Different Facts Seems Views Consciousness Wonderful Bird Strikes Flight Streams Pace

Book:The Principles of Psychology

Source: The Principles of Psychology