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William James Quotes - Page 5

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 strenuous life tastes better

The strenuous life tastes better

Taste

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.

Life, Survival, Despair

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

Men, May, Firsts

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.

Character, Roots, Excellence

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

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.

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

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

Life, Positive, Art

The discovery of the power of our thoughts will prove to be the most important discovery of our time

Positive, Discovery, Important

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

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

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

Education, Teacher, Learning

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

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

Attitude, Alive, Authenticity

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

Inspiration, Action, Emotion

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.

Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

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.

Happiness, Attitude, Mean

William James (2015). “The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature”, p.43, Xist Publishing

The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.

Needs, Appreciated, Humans

To neglect the wise sayings of great thinkers is to deny ourselves the truest education.

Wise, Neglect, Deny

A thing is important if anyone think it important.

Thinking, Important, Ifs

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

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

Men, Ideas, Twenties

William James (1961). “Psychology: The Briefer Course”, p.272, Courier Corporation

Truth is what will be steadily borne out by subsequent experience

Truth Is

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

Inspirational, Positive, Success

The deepest longing in the human breast is the desire for appreciation.

Appreciation, Creativity, Desire

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

Love, Islands, Sea

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

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.

Men, Discovery, Mind

In order to disprove the assertion that all crows are black, one white crow is sufficient.

Order, White, Black

Belief creates the actual fact.

Inspirational, Uplifting, Philosophical

There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood bu those who hear it.

Lying, Misunderstood, Statistics

'The Varieties of Religious Experience' (1902) lectures 14 and 15, p. 355

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