William James Quotes - Page 21

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The self-same atoms which, chaotically dispersed, made the nebula, now, jammed and temporarily caught in peculiar positions, form our brains; and the 'evolution' of brains, if understood, would be simply the account of how the atoms came to be so caught and jammed.

William James

Science, Self, Brain

William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.146, Courier Corporation

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Lay plans as if we were to be immortal.

William James

Immortality, Plans, Ifs

The Varieties of Religious Experience Lecture 3 (1902)

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We are thinking beings, and we cannot exclude the intellect from participating in any of our functions.

William James

Thinking, Function, Intellect

Dr. William James (2013). “The William James Reader”, p.669, Simon and Schuster

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Every time a resolve or a fine glow of feeling evaporates without bearing practical fruit is worse than a chance lost; it works so as positively to hinder future resolutions and emotions from taking the normal path of discharge.

William James

Inspirational, Feelings, Path

"The Principles of Psychology".

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If there is aught of good in the style, it is the result of ceaseless toil in rewriting. Everything comes out wrong with me at first; but when once objectified in a crude shape, I can torture and poke and scrape and pat it till it offends me no more.

William James

Style, Toil, Firsts

"The Letters of William James".

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In the dim background of our mind we know meanwhile what we ought to be doing: getting up, dressing ourselves, answering the person who has spoken to us, trying to make the next step in our reasoning. But somehow we cannot start.

William James

Philosophical, Surfing, Mind

"Psychology: The Briefer Course".

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If this life is not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight.

William James

Life, Success, Real

William James (1956). “The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, and Human Immortality”, p.61, Courier Corporation

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Only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.

William James

Freedom, Age, Understood

William James (1970). “Essays in Pragmatism”, Simon and Schuster

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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”

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Science, like life, feeds on its own decay. New facts burst old rules; then newly divined conceptions bind old and new together into a reconciling law.

William James

Science, Law, Together

William James (1986). “Essays in Psychical Research”, p.101, Harvard University Press

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It seems the natural thing for us to listen whilst the Europeans talk.

William James

Political, Politics, Natural

William James (1987). “Writings, 1902-1910”, p.11, Library of America

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An enormous mass of experience, both of homeopathic doctors and their patients, is invoked in favor of the efficacy of these remedies and doses.

William James

Doctors, Favors, Patient

William James (1987). “Essays, Comments, and Reviews”, p.57, Harvard University Press

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It does not follow, because our ancestors made so many errors of fact and mixed them with their religion, that we should therefore leave off being religious at all. By being religious we establish ourselves in possession of ultimate reality at the only points at which reality is given us to guard. Our responsible concern is with our private destiny, after all.

William James

Religious, Reality, Destiny

William James (1985). “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, p.394, Harvard University Press

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The instant field of the present is at all times what I call the 'pure' experience. It is only virtually or potentially either object or subject as yet.

William James

Fields, All Time, Instant

William James (1976). “Essays in Radical Empiricism”, p.13, Harvard University Press

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We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy, charity, and non-resistance may be, and often have been, manifested in excess. ... You will agree to this in general, for in spite of the Gospel, in spite of Quakerism, in spite of Tolstoi, you believe in fighting fire with fire, in shooting down usurpers, locking up thieves, and freezing out vagabonds and swindlers.

William James

Believe, Fighting, Fire

William James (1985). “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, p.284, Harvard University Press

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Ideas are so much flat psychological surface unless some mirrored matter gives them cognitive lustre. This is why as a pragmatistI have so carefully posited 'reality' ab initio, and why throughout my whole discussion, I remain an epistemologist realist.

William James

Reality, Ideas, Giving

William James (2015). “The Meaning of Truth: Human Understanding”, p.74, 谷月社

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There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, it must not scream or curse.

William James

Religious, Attitude, Snickers

William James (2015). “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, p.42, Booklassic

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Mental fire is what won't burn real sticks; mental water is what won't necessarily (though of course it may) put out even a mentalfire.

William James

Real, Fire, Water

William James (1912). “Essays in Radical Empiricism”

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Faith is synonymous with working hypothesis.

William James

Faith, Hypothesis

William James (1956). “The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, and Human Immortality”, p.95, Courier Corporation

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To know one thing thoroughly would be to know the universe.

William James

Would Be, One Thing, Knows

William James (2012). “Psychology: The Briefer Course”, p.221, Courier Corporation

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The only function that one experience can perform is to lead into another experience; and the only fulfillment we can speak of isthe reaching of a certain experienced end. When one experience leads to (or can lead to) the same end as another, they agree in function.

William James

Speak, Reaching, Ends

William James (2003). “Essays in Radical Empiricism”, p.33, Courier Corporation

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Better risk loss of truth than chance of error--that is your faith-vetoer's exact position. He is actively playing his stake as much as the believer is; he is backing the field against the religious hypothesis, just as the believer is backing the religious hypothesis against the field.

William James

Faith, Religious, Loss

William James, John Dewey, John M. Capps, Donald Capps (2005). “James and Dewey on Belief and Experience”, p.107, University of Illinois Press

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In the deepest heart of all of us there is a corner in which the ultimate mystery of things works sadly.

William James

Heart, Mystery, Corners

William James (2015). “Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays”, p.23, 谷月社

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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

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In all this process of acquiring conceptions, a certain instinctive order is followed. There is a native tendency to assimilate certain kinds of conception at one age, and other kinds of conception at a later age.

William James

Philosophy, Educational, Order

William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.89, Harvard University Press

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Born: January 11, 1842
Died: August 26, 1910
Occupation: Philosopher
Cite this Page: Citation

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