William James Quotes - Page 5

Quotes about:

• 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 remain entirely unaffected for the better.

  William James

  Success, Uplifting, Taken

  William James, Robert D Richardson (2010). “The Heart of William James”, p.112, Harvard University Press

  80 Copy quote

• A man may not achieve everything he has dreamed, but he will never achieve anything great without having dreamed it first.

  William James

  Men, May, Firsts

  19 Copy quote

• The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.

  William James

  Philosophical, Essence, Genius

  17 Copy quote

• In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering.

  William James

  Education, Teacher, Learning

  William James (2012). “Psychology: The Briefer Course”, p.167, Courier Corporation

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• We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition

  William James

  Ambition, Order, Political

  William James (2013). “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, p.368, Courier Corporation

  10 Copy quote

• Do every day or two something for no other reason than its difficulty.

  William James

  Two, Reason, Habit

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.52, Harvard University Press

  40 Copy quote

• If you give appreciation to people, you win their goodwill. But more important than that, practicing this philosophy has made a different person of me.

  William James

  Appreciation, Attitude, Philosophy

  7 Copy quote

• The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will... An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.

  William James

  Character, Roots, Excellence

  William James (1961). “Psychology: The Briefer Course”, p.95, Courier Corporation

  13 Copy quote

• When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion, action will.

  William James

  Inspiration, Action, Emotion

  20 Copy quote

• 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

  17 Copy quote

• As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

  William James

  Use, Facts, Belief

  "The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy". Book by William James, 1897.

  5 Copy quote

• We and God have business with each other, and in opening ourselves to God's influence our deepest destiny is fulfilled.

  William James

  Destiny, Influence, Opening

  Dr. William James (2013). “The William James Reader”, p.739, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• Belief creates the actual fact.

  William James

  Inspirational, Uplifting, Philosophical

  33 Copy quote

• The mind, in short, works on the data it receives very much as the sculptor works on his block of stone.

  William James

  Block, Data, Mind

  William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.288, Courier Corporation

  12 Copy quote

• Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

  William James

  Inspirational, Positive, Success

  107 Copy quote

• We with our lives are like islands in the sea... The islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom.

  William James

  Love, Islands, Sea

  "Confidences of a 'Psychical Researcher'". The American Magazine, Vol. 68, 1909.

  102 Copy quote

• To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.

  William James

  Life, Positive, Art

  16 Copy quote

• One of the greatest discoveries of our time is that a man can alter the state of their life by altering the state of their mind.

  William James

  Men, Discovery, Mind

  27 Copy quote

• A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid or distasteful in itself. He breaks his engagements, leaves his letters unanswered, neglects his family duties incorrigibly, because he is powerless to turn his attention down and back from those more interesting trains of imagery with which his genius constantly occupies his mind.

  William James

  Family, Power, Men

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.67, Harvard University Press

  9 Copy quote

• You can't out-perform your self-image.

  William James

  Self

  4 Copy quote

• Our life is always deeper than we know, is always more divine than it seems, and hence we are able to survive degradations and despairs which otherwise must engulf us.

  William James

  Life, Survival, Despair

  5 Copy quote

• A thing is important if anyone think it important.

  William James

  Thinking, Important, Ifs

  William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.712, Courier Corporation

  12 Copy quote

• Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive.

  William James

  Attitude, Alive, Authenticity

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  17 Copy quote

• Every time a resolve or a fine glow of feeling evaporates without bearing practical fruit is worse than a chance lost; it works to hinder future resolutions and emotions from taking the normal path of discharge. There is no more contemptible type of human character than that of the nerveless sentimentalist and dreamer, who spends his life in a weltering sea of sensibility and emotion, but who never does a manly concrete deed.

  William James

  Character, Sea, Feelings

  William James (1950). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.125, Courier Corporation

  14 Copy quote

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