Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

William James Quotes - Page 20

All Quotes Acceptance Achievement Adversity Affection Age Alcohol Anxiety Apology Appreciation Art Attitude Authority Belief Business Challenges Change Character Children Choices College Common Sense Community Consciousness Courage Creativity Criticism Design Desire Destiny Doubt Earth Education Effort Encouragement Energy Ethics Evil Excellence Exercise Experience Failing Failure Faith Fate Fear Feelings Fighting Free Will Freedom Friendship Genius Giving Giving Up Glory God Happiness Hate Heart Heroism History Holiday Honesty Human Nature Imagination Impulse Individuality Inspiration Inspirational Knowledge Laughter Leadership Learning Letting Go Life Literature Logic Loss Love Lying Making A Difference Memories Military Motivation Motivational Opportunity Optimism Pain Passion Past Perception Perseverance Personality Perspective Philosophy Pleasure Politics Positive Positive Thinking Prayer Procrastination Psychology Purpose Quality Reading Reality Reflection Religion Responsibility Risk Running Science Self Esteem Self Love Society Soul Stress Struggle Study Success Suffering Teaching Today Truth Virtue Vision Wall War Weakness Wealth Wisdom Worry

The stream of thought flows on; but most of its segments fall into the bottomless abyss of oblivion. Of some, no memory survives the instant of their passage. Of others, it is confined to a few moments, hours or days.

The stream of thought flows on; but most of its segments fall into the bottomless abyss of oblivion. Of some, no memory survives the instant of their passage. Of others, it is confined to a few moments, hours or days. Others, again, leave vestiges which are indestructible, and by means of which they may be recalled as long as life endures.

Memories, Fall, Mean

William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.643, Courier Corporation

The most immutable barrier in nature is between one man's thoughts and another's.

Men, Barriers, One Man

A man with no philosophy in him is the most inauspicious and unprofitable of all possible social mates.

Philosophy, Men, Social

William James (2016). “William James: Essays and Lectures”, p.61, Routledge

Divinity lies all around us, but society remains too hidebound to accept that fact...The mother sea and the fountain-head of all religions lies in the mystical experiences of the individual.

Mother, Lying, Mystical Experiences

No one sees further into a generalization than his own knowledge of detail extends.

Details, Generalization

Arthur Kendall Getman, John Dewey, William James, Werrett Wallace Charters, Ralph M. Stewart (1937*). “Contributions of Ten Leading Americans to Education”

Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.

Long, Challenges, Credit

William James (2013). “Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (New Thought Edition - Secret Library)”, p.97, Lulu Press, Inc

That which is most personal, is most interesting.

Interesting, Most Interesting

The truth remains that, after adolescence has begun, "words, words, words," must constitute a large part, and an always larger part as life advances, of what the human being has to learn.

Adolescence, Humans, Remains

William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.73, Cosimo, Inc.

Cramming seeks to stamp things in by intense application immediately before the ordeal. But a thing thus learned can form but few associations.

Teaching, Learning, Association

William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.103, Nuvision Pubns

So far war has been the only force that can discipline a whole community, and until an equivalent discipline is organized, I believe that war must have its way.

War, Believe, Discipline

William James, Robert D Richardson (2010). “The Heart of William James”, p.312, Harvard University Press

Psychology saves us from mistakes. It makes us more clear as to what we are about. We gain confidence in respect to any method which we are using as soon as we believe that it has theory as well as practice at its back.

Art, Mistake, Teaching

William James (2013). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.4, Courier Corporation

There can be no existence of evil as a force to the healthy-minded individual.

Evil, Healthy, Individual

The baby, assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin, and entrails at once, feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion.

Baby, Eye, Confusion

1890 The Principles of Psychology, ch.13.

A good hypothesis in science must have other properties than those of the phenomenon it is immediately invoked to explain, otherwise it is not prolific enough.

Statistics, Enough, Hypothesis

William James (1987). “Writings, 1902-1910”, p.462, Library of America

Marvelous as may be the power of my dog to understand my moods, deathless as his affection and fidelity, his mental state is as unsolved a mystery to me as it was to my remotest ancestor.

Dog, May, Affection

Footnotes -- little dogs yapping at the heels of the text

Dog, Writing, Littles

Man lives for science as well as bread.

Science, Men, Bread

William James (1987). “Essays, Comments, and Reviews”, p.11, Harvard University Press

Earnestness means willingness to live with energy, though energy bring pain.

Pain, Mean, Energy

Dr. William James (2013). “The William James Reader”, p.533, Simon and Schuster

Essential truth, the truth of the intellectualists, the truth with no one thinking it, is like the coat that fits tho no one has ever tried it on, like the music that no ear has listened to. It is less real, not more real, than the verified article; and to attribute a superior degree of glory to it seems little more than a piece of perverse abstraction-worship.

Truth, Real, Thinking

William James (2015). “The Meaning of Truth: Human Understanding”, p.78, 谷月社

To begin with, our knowledge grows in spots. The spots may be large or small, but the knowledge ever grows all over... What you first gain from them is probably a small amount of new information, a few new definitions, or distinctions, or points of view. But while these special ideas are being added, the rest of your knowledge stands still, and only gradually will you 'line up' your previous opinions with the novelties I am trying to instil, and modify to some slight degree their mass.

Educational, Ideas, Views

"Writings, 1902-1910".

There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and said his say.

Men, Finals, Lasts

William James (2010). “The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy”, p.208, The Floating Press

Invention, using the term most broadly, and imitation, are the two legs, so to call them, on which the human race historically has walked.

Race, Two, Legs

William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.39, Harvard University Press

Ninety-nine hundredths or, possibly, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of our activity is purely automatic and habitual, from our rising in the morning to our lying down each night.

Morning, Lying, Night

William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.48, Harvard University Press

What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural way, nay, more, a menacing and an imminent way? And what sense can there be in condemning ourselves for taking the wrong way, unless we need have done nothing of the sort, unless the right way was open to us as well? I cannot understand the willingness to act, no matter how we feel, without the belief that acts are really good and bad.

Zest, Needs, Done

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

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

Friendship, Sympathy, Community

William James (2015). “Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays”, p.144, 谷月社

You May Also Like: