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Quote by William James

“As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.”

Quote by William James

Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience

Work

The Varieties of Religious Experience

This seminal work delves into the profound and varied ways individuals have experienced the divine, the sacred, and the transcendent, offering insights into the nature of religion and spirituality. 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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“I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds.”

Knows World Way Important Philosophy Interesting Perspective Important Things Determine Philosopher Gentleman Most Interesting Ladies And Gentlemen

Book:Writings, 1902-1910

Source: Writings, 1902-1910

“The transition from tenseness, self-responsibility, and worry, to equanimity, receptivity, and peace, is the most wonderful of all those shiftings of inner equilibrium, those changes of personal centre of energy, which I have analyzed so often; and the chief wonder of it is that it so often comes about, not by doing, but by simply relaxing and throwing the burden down.”

Self Energy Responsibility Wonder Worry Wonderful Burden Chiefs Transition Throwing Centre Shifting Equilibrium Equanimity Receptivity Self Responsibility

Author:William James

“Smitten as we are with the vision of social righteousness, a God indifferent to everything but adulation, and full of partiality for his individual favorites, lacks an essential element of largeness.”

God Individual Social Vision Essentials Elements Righteousness Indifferent Adulation Partiality Smitten

Book:The William James Reader

Source: The William James Reader

“I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!.”

Men Way Life Real Moments Character Would Be Success Speak Felt Voice Attitude Moral Alive Particular Active Best Way Real Me

Author:William James

“We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can...in the acquisition of a new habit, we must take car to launch ourselves with as strong and decided initiative as possible. Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life.”

Life Action Success Suffering Strong Car Habit Decided Exception Rooted Initiative Acquisition Habitual New Habits

Author:William James

“Men's activities are occupied into ways -- in grappling with external circumstances and in striving to set things at one in their own topsy-turvy mind.”

Men Way Mind Circumstances Activity Strive Grappling Topsy Turvy

Book:The Letters of William James

Source: The Letters of William James

“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”

Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience

“There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.”

People Ifs Believe Enough Absurd Propaganda Repeats

Author:William James

“Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is still theoretically possible ... faith is the readiness to act in a cause the prosperous issue of which is not certified to us in advance.”

Mean Stills Belief Causes Issues Doubt Prosperous Readiness

Book:The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, and Human Immortality

Source: The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, and Human Immortality

“A man who has both feet planted firmly in the air can be safely called a liberal as opposed to the conservative, who has both feet firmly planted in his mouth.”

Men Air Feet Mouths Conservative Liberalism Conservatism

Author:Jacques Barzun