William James Quotes About Literature

Quotes about: Literature

• Most men have a good memory for facts connected with their own pursuits.

  William James

  Memories, Philosophy, Educational

  William James (2012). “Psychology: The Briefer Course”, p.161, Courier Corporation

• 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.

  William James

  Philosophy, Educational, Past

  William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.123, Nuvision Pubns

• The entire routine of our memorized acquisitions, for example, is a consequence of nothing but the Law of Contiguity. The words of a poem, the formulas of trigonometry, the facts of history, the properties of material things, are all known to us as definite systems or groups of objects which cohere in an order fixed by innumerable iterations, and of which any one part reminds us of the others.

  William James

  Philosophy, Educational, Order

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

• But when all is said and done, the fact remains that some teachers have a naturally inspiring presence and can make their exercises interesting, whilst others simply cannot. And psychology and general pedagogy here confess their failure, and hand things over to the deeper spring of human personality to conduct the task.

  William James

  Teacher, Philosophy, Spring

  William James (2013). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.53, Courier Corporation

• 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.

  William James

  Philosophy, Educational, Book

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.90, Harvard University Press

• To know psychology, therefore, is absolutely no guarantee that we shall be good teacher.

  William James

  Teacher, Educational, Philosophy

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.16, Harvard University Press

• Any object not interesting in itself may become interesting through becoming associated with an object in which an interest already exists. The two associated objects grow, as it were, together; the interesting portion sheds its quality over the whole; and thus things not interesting in their own right borrow an interest which becomes as real and as strong as that of any natively interesting thing.

  William James

  Strong, Real, Educational

  William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.78, Nuvision Pubns

• 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.

  William James

  Running, Couple, Educational

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

• There is a stream, a succession of states, or waves, or fields (or whatever you please to call them), of knowledge, of feeling, of desire, of deliberation, etc., that constantly pass and repass, and that constitute our inner life.

  William James

  Educational, Philosophy, Feelings

  William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.20, Nuvision Pubns

• An idea will infect another with its own emotional interest when they have become both associated together into any sort of a mental total.

  William James

  Educational, Philosophy, Emotional

  William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.78, Nuvision Pubns

• 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.

  William James

  Memories, Philosophy, Educational

  William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.96, Nuvision Pubns

• Volition . . . takes place only when there are a number of conflicting systems of ideas, and depends on our having a complex field of consciousness.

  William James

  Philosophy, Educational, Ideas

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.104, Harvard University Press

• Man, whatever else he may be, is primarily a practical being, whose mind is given him to aid in adapting him to this world's life

  William James

  Educational, Philosophy, Men

  William James (2014). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology; And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.22, BookRix

• The most natively interesting object to a man is his own personal self and its fortunes. We accordingly see that the moment a thing becomes connected with the fortunes of the self, it forthwith becomes an interesting thing.

  William James

  Educational, Philosophy, Men

  William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.78, Nuvision Pubns

• 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.

  William James

  Teacher, Philosophy, Educational

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.108, Harvard University Press

• No reception without reaction, no impression without correlative expression, -this is the great maxim which the teacher ought never to forget.

  William James

  Teacher, Philosophy, Educational

• From all these facts there emerges a very simple abstract program for the teacher to follow in keeping the attention of the child: Begin with the line of his native interests, and offer him objects that have some immediate connection with these.

  William James

  Teacher, Children, Philosophy

  William James (1907). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”

• In all primary school work the principle of multiple impressions is well recognized.

  William James

  Philosophy, Educational, School

• Our volitional habits depend, then, first, on what the stock of ideas is which we have; and, second, on the habitual coupling of the several ideas with action or inaction respectively.

  William James

  Philosophy, Educational, Ideas

  William James, Robert D Richardson (2010). “The Heart of William James”, p.124, Harvard University Press

• Habit is a second nature, or rather, it is 'ten times nature'.

  William James

  Inspirational, Educational, Philosophy

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

• The difference between an interesting and a tedious teacher consists in little more than the inventiveness by which the one is able to mediate these associations and connections, and in the dullness in discovering such transitions which the other shows.

  William James

  Teacher, Philosophy, Educational

• 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.

  William James

  Art, Philosophy, Educational

  William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.70, Cosimo, Inc.

• The exercise of voluntary attention in the schoolroom must therefore be counted one of the most important points of training that take place there; and the first-rate teacher, by the keenness of the remoter interests which he is able to awaken, will provide abundant opportunities for its occurrence.

  William James

  Teacher, Philosophy, Educational

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.111, Harvard University Press

• We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and as carefully guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous.

  William James

  Educational, Philosophy, Science

  William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.57, Nuvision Pubns

• If, then, you wish to insure the interest of your pupils, there is only one way to do it; and that is to make certain that they have something in their minds to attend with, when you begin to talk. That something can consist in nothing but a previous lot of ideas already interesting in themselves, and of such a nature that the incoming novel objects which you present can dovetail into them and form with them some kind of a logically associated or systematic whole.

  William James

  Philosophy, Educational, Ideas

  William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.80, Nuvision Pubns

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