The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. - William James
Wisdom is learning what to overlook. - William James
In certain diseased conditions consciousness is a mere spark, without memory of the past or thought of the future, and with the present narrowed down to some one simple emotion or sensation of the body. - William James
To change one’s life: 1. Start immediately. 2. Do it flamboyantly. 3. No exceptions. - William James
There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers. - William James
An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation. - William James
Why should we think upon things that are lovely Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings. - William James
Our environment encourages us not to be philosophers but partisans. - William James
the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess sucess is our national disease - William James
Most people, probably, are in doubt about certain matters ascribed to their past. They may have seen them, may have said them, done them, or they may only have dreamed or imagined they did so. - William James
Selection is the very keel on which our mental ship is built. And in this case of memory its utility is obvious. If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing. - William James
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. - William James
We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep. - William James
Man flieht nicht, weil man Angst hat, sondern man hat Angst, weil man flieht. - William James
The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it. - William James
Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is. - William James
The great use of a life is to spend for something that outlasts it. - William James
This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it. - William James
There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. - William James
There is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do, and that is, to contradict other philosophers. - William James
The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude. - William James
Much of what we call evil can often be converted into a bracing and tonic good by a simple change of the sufferer's inner attitude from one of fear to one of fight - William James
We know the meaning so long as no one asks us to define it. - William James
He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed. - William James
These, then are my last words to you: be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. - William James
If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience. - William James
My experience is what I agree to attend to. - William James
Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism. - William James
I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are impossible. - William James
The most immutable barrier in nature is between one man's thoughts and another's. - William James
Psychology is the science of mental life - William James
Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit. - William James
Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. - William James
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. - William James
The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community. - William James
The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook. - William James
To change one's life: Begin now. Be bold. No exceptions. - William James
There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference. - William James
It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. - William James
The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude. - William James
The difference between a good man and a bad man is the choice of cause. - William James
Work usually follows will. - William James
It may be that no religious reconciliation with the absolute totality of things is possible. Some evils, indeed, are ministerial to higher forms of good; but it may be that there are forms of evil so extreme as to enter into no good system whatsoever… - William James
we have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood - William James
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. - William James
As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use. - William James
We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be. - William James
No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may retain entirely unaffected for the better. With mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved. - William James
The whole drift of my education goes to persuade me that the world of our present consciousness is only one out of many worlds of consciousness that exist. - William James
Belief creates the actual fact. - William James
Resign your destiny to higher powers. - William James
The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. - William James
If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. - William James
Wisdom is seeing something in a non-habitual manner. - William James
Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings. - William James
إن بيننا وبين الله رابطة لا تنفصم، فإذا نحن أخضعنا أنفسنا لإشرافه - سبحانه وتعالى - تحققت أمنياتنا وآمالنا كلها. - William James
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. - William James
Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. - William James
Beyond the very extremity of fatigue distress, amounts of ease and power that we never dreamed ourselves to own, sources of strength habitually not taxed at all, because habitually we never push through the obstruction - William James
A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed. - William James
In order to disprove the assertion that all crows are black, one white crow is sufficient. - William James
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. - William James
The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. - William James
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. - William James
A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices. - William James