William James Quotes About Happiness

Quotes about: Happiness

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  The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

  William James

  Happiness, Fear, Stress
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  The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

  William James

  Life, Change, Positive

  "Living the Abundant Life". Book by Thomas S. Monson, 2004.
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  The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

  William James

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

• Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

  William James

  Motivational, Happiness, Freedom

• I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing.

  William James

  Happiness, Music, Philosophical

• We don't laugh because we're happy - we're happy because we laugh.

  William James

  Happiness, Laughter, Laughing

• The good we do today becomes the happiness of tomorrow.

  William James

  Happiness, Today, Tomorrow

• Habit simplifies our movements, makes them accurate, and diminishes fatigue.

  William James

  Life, Happiness, Movement

  William James, Robert D Richardson (2010). “The Heart of William James”, p.105, Harvard University Press

• The first thing to learn in intercourse with others is non-interference with their own particular ways of being happy, provided those ways do not assume to interfere by violence with ours.

  William James

  Happiness, Society, Politics

  Talks to Teachers (1899) "What makes a Life Significant?"

• The sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. If such conduct does not make you soon feel cheerful, nothing else on that occasion can.

  William James

  Happiness, Cheerful, Path

  "Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals".

• Regarding mutual tolerance: It is negative in one sense, but positive in another. It absolutely forbids us to be forward in pronouncing on the meaninglessness of forms of existence other than our own; and it commands us to tolerate, respect, and indulge those whom we see harmlessly interested and happy in their own ways, however unintelligible these may be to us. Hands off.

  William James

  Happiness, Respect, Hands

• Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. which give happiness. Thomas Jefferson We never enjoy perfect happiness; our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness; some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.

  William James

  Happiness, Sadness, Reality

• All the daily routine of life, our dressing and undressing, the coming and going from our work or carrying through of its various operations, is utterly without mental reference to pleasure and pain, except under rarely realized conditions.

  William James

  Happiness, Pain, Routine

  William James (1918). “The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 2”, p.553, Courier Corporation

• The greatest discovery of the 19th century was not in the realm of the physical sciences, but the power of the subconscious mind touched by faith. Any individual can tap into an eternal reservoir of power that will enable them to overcome any problem that may arise. All weaknesses can be overcome, bodily healing, financial independence, spiritual awakening, and prosperity beyond your wildest dreams. This is the superstructure of happiness.

  William James

  Happiness, Dream, Spiritual

• We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing.

  William James

  Inspirational, Happiness

• All natural happiness thus seems infected with a contradiction. The breath of the sepulchre surrounds it.

  William James

  Happiness, Contradiction, Natural

  William James, Robert D Richardson (2010). “The Heart of William James”, p.219, Harvard University Press

• How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

  William James

  Happiness, Laughter, Men

  William James (2015). “The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature”, p.40, Xist Publishing

• The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly. What can be more base and unworthy than the pining, puling, mumping mood, no matter by what outward ills it may have been engendered? What is more injurious to others? What less helpful as a way out of the difficulty? It but fastens and perpetuates the trouble which occasioned it, and increases the total evil of the situation. At all costs, then, we ought to reduce the sway of that mood; we ought to scout it in ourselves and others, and never show it tolerance.

  William James

  Happiness, Attitude, Mean

  William James (2015). “The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature”, p.43, Xist Publishing

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