Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by William James

Quote by William James

“If the topic be highly abstract, show its nature by concrete examples. If it be unfamiliar, trace some point of analogy in it with the known. If it be inhuman, make it figure as part of a story. If it be difficult, couple its acquisition with some prospect of personal gain. Above all things, make sure that it shall run through certain inner changes, since no unvarying object can possibly hold the mental field for long.”

Quote by William James

Create image

Author

William James
William James

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

You May Also Like

“An educated memory depends on an organized system of associations; and its goodness depends on two of their peculiarities: first, on the persistency of the associations; and, second, on their number.”

FirstsTwoPhilosophyLiteratureMemoriesNumbersDependsGoodnessEducationalEducatedOrganizedAssociation
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
Create image

“The art of remembering is the art of thinking. When we wish to fix a new thing in either our own mind or a pupil's, our conscious effort should not be so much to impress and retain it as to connect it with something else already there. The connecting is the thinking; and, if we attend clearly to the connection, the connected thing will certainly be likely to remain within recall.”

IfsThinkingShouldMindArtPhilosophyRememberLiteratureWishEffortConsciousConnectionsEducationalConnectedNew ThingsRecallsImpressConnectingPupils
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
Create image

“Be patient and sympathetic with the type of mind that cuts a poor figure in examinations. It may, in the long examination which life sets us, come out in the end in better shape than the glib and ready reproducer, its passions being deeper, its purposes more worthy, its combining power less commonplace, and its total mental output consequently more important.”

MindMayLongImportantEndsPhilosophyPurposePassionLiteraturePoorCuttingFiguresReadyTypeShapesPatientEducationalDeeperWorthyBe PatientExaminationCommonplaceSympatheticOutputCombining
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
Create image

“Feed the growing human being, feed him with the sort of experience for which from year to year he shows a natural craving, and he will develop in adult life a sounder sort of mental tissue, even though he may seem to be 'wasting' a great deal of his growing time, in the eyes of those for whom the only channels of learning are books and verbally communicated information.”

YearsHumansMayBookPhilosophyShowsSeemsEyeLiteratureNaturalHuman BeingsDealsGrowingInformationAdultsEducationalCravingTissuesSounder
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
Create image

“The gist of the matter is this: Every impression that comes in from without, be it a sentence which we hear, an object of vision, or an effluvium which assails our nose, no sooner enters our consciousness than it is drafted off in some determinate direction or other, making connection with the other materials already there, and finally producing what we call our reaction. The particular connections it strikes into are determined by our past experiences and the 'associations' of the present sort of impression with them.”

MatterPhilosophyPastLiteratureConsciousnessVisionObjectsParticularMaterialsConnectionsEducationalDeterminedSentencesStrikesReactionsImpressionNosesAssociationOur PastPast ExperiencesGist
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
Create image

“You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.”

MayStillsIdeasPhilosophyActionLiteratureTeacherDutyMy FriendsEducationalPerceiveAbstractPupilsVigorousHabitualParalysis
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
Create image