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Quote by William James

“To spend life for something which outlasts it.”

Quote by William James

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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“The most violent revolutions in an individuals beliefs leave most of his old order standing. Time and space, cause and effect, nature and history, and ones own biography remain untouched. New truth is always a go-between, a smoother-over of transitions. It marries old opinion to new fact so as ever to show a minimum of jolt, a maximum of continuity.”

Source: Pragmatism and the Conception of Thruth

“The minute a man ceases to grow, no matter what his years, that minute he begins to be old.”

Men Years Matter Grows Growth Minutes No Matter What Cease

Author:William James

“Footnotes -- little dogs yapping at the heels of the text”

Writing Littles Dog Heels Footnotes

Author:William James

“Failure, then, failure! so the world stamps us at every turn. We strew it with our blunders, our misdeeds, our lost opportunities, with all the memorials of our inadequacy to our vocation. And with what a damning emphasis does it then blot us out! No easy fine, no mere apology or formal expiation, will satisfy the world's demands, but every pound of flesh exacted is soaked with all its blood. The subtlest forms of suffering known to man are connected with the poisonous humiliations incidental to these results.”

Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience

“Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.”

Humans Use Individual Half Failing Ought Limits Resources Various Awake Small Parts

Author:William James

“As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.”

Facts Use Belief Theory

Author:William James

“The further limits of our being plunge, it seems to me, into an altogether other dimension of existence from the sensible and merely understandable world. Name it the mystical region, or the supernatural region, whichever you choose. So far as our ideal impulses originate in this region (and most of them do originate in it, for we find them possessing us in a way for which we cannot articulately account), we belong to it in a more intimate sense than that in which we belong to the visible world, for we belong in the most intimate sense wherever our ideals belong.”

World Way Seems Names Existence Limits Ideals Accounts Impulse Intimate Visible Dimensions Regions Sensible You Choose Mystical Possessing Plunge

Book:Essays in Pragmatism

Source: Essays in Pragmatism

“Give up the feeling of responsibility, let go your hold, resign the care of your destiny to higher powers, be genuinely indifferent as to what becomes of it all and you will find not only that you gain a perfect inward relief, but often also, in addition, the particular goods you sincerely thought you were renouncing.”

Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience

“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.”

Humans Political Lying Politics Challenges Justice Argument Appeals Folly Reasonable Sympathy Persuasion Misunderstood Crocodiles Magnanimity

Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience

Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience

“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