William James Quotes About Soul

Quotes about: Soul

• Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make very small use of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.

  William James

  Inspirational, Life, Moving

  Letter toWincenty Lutoslawski, 6 May 1906

• Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don't want to do

  William James

  Inspiration, Exercise, Two

• We have lost the power even of imagining what the ancient idealization of poverty could have meant: the liberation from material attachments, the unbribed soul, the manlier indifference, the paying our way by what we are and not by what we have, the right to fling away our life at any moment irresponsibly - the more athletic trim, in short, the moral fighting shape.

  William James

  Fighting, Attachment, Athletic

  William James (2015). “The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature”, p.124, Xist Publishing

• Or if the hypothesis were offered us of a world in which Messrs. Fourier's and Bellamy's and Morris's Utopias should all be outdone, and millions kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far-off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torment, what except a specifical and independent sort of emotion can it be which would make us immediately feel, even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as the fruit of such a bargain?

  William James

  Lonely, Independent, Science

  William James (2012). “The Will to Believe and Human Immortality”, p.133, Courier Corporation

• 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

  Love, Life, Gratitude

  "How About a Little Hope?" by Litsa Dremousis, www.esquire.com. July 30, 2007.

• Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens outthe widest vistas. It 'bakes no bread', as has been said, but it can inspire our souls with courage.

  William James

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Inspire

  William James (2015). “Pragmatism and the Conception of Thruth”, p.6, William James

• The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

  William James

  Soul, Stronger, Surroundings

  "How About a Little Hope?" by Litsa Dremousis, www.esquire.com. July 30, 2007.

• The states of consciousness are all that psychology needs to do her work with. Metaphysics or theology may prove the Soul to exist; but for psychology the hypothesis of such a substantial principle of unity is superfluous.

  William James

  Soul, Psychology, Unity

  William James (1984). “Psychology, Briefer Course”, p.181, Harvard University Press

• But petitional prayer is only one department of prayer; and if we take the word in the wider sense as meaning every kind of inward communion or conversation with the power recognized as divine, we can easily see that scientific criticism leaves it untouched. Prayer in this wide sense is the very soul and essence of religion.

  William James

  Prayer, Essence, Soul

  William James (2015). “The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature”, p.151, Xist Publishing

• Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul None is more gladdening or fruitful than to know You can regenerate and make yourself what you will.

  William James

  Beauty, Beautiful, Wisdom

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