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William James Quotes - Page 9

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All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.

All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.

Habit, Form, Mass

William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.56, Nuvision Pubns

You must bring out of each word its practical cash-value, set it at work within the stream of your experience.

Experience, Cash, Streams

1907 Pragmatism, lecture 2.

Feed the growing human being, feed him with the sort of experience for which from year to year he shows a natural craving, and he will develop in adult life a sounder sort of mental tissue, even though he may seem to be 'wasting' a great deal of his growing time, in the eyes of those for whom the only channels of learning are books and verbally communicated information.

Philosophy, Educational, Book

William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.90, Harvard University Press

Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world.

Effort, World, Contribution

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.

Men, Self, Individual

William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.294, Courier Corporation

Evil is a disease; and worry over disease is itself an additional form of disease, which only adds to the original complaint.

Evil, Worry, Add

Dr. William James (2013). “The William James Reader”, p.401, Simon and Schuster

We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing.

Inspirational, Happiness

The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires.

Truth, Mean, Inspire

William James (2002). “The Meaning of Truth”, p.300, Courier Corporation

For the moment, what we attend to is reality.

Reality, Moments

William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.322, Courier Corporation

Man, biologically considered ... is simply the most formidable of all beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own kind.

Men, Kind, Beast

William James, Frederick Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers, Ignas K. Skrupskelis (1982). “Essays in Religion and Morality”, p.121, Harvard University Press

There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness.

Companionship, Affinity, Tenderness

William James (2004). “The Varieties of Religous Experience: A Study in Human Nature”, p.280, Library of Alexandria

Procrastination is attitude's natural assassin. There's nothing so fatiguing as an uncompleted task

Attitude, Procrastination, Tasks

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

Faith, Believe, Philosophical

The instinct of ownership is fundamental in man's nature.

Wisdom, Men, Rights

William James (1987). “Writings, 1902-1910”, p.288, Library of America

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

Feet, Long, Devil

William James (2013). “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, p.50, Courier Corporation

Man's chief difference from the brutes lies in the exuberant excess of his subjective propensities. Prune his extravagance, sober him, and you undo him.

Lying, Men, Differences

William James, John Dewey, John M. Capps, Donald Capps (2005). “James and Dewey on Belief and Experience”, p.52, University of Illinois Press

In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible.

Strong, Leaving, Acquisition

William James (2008). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.34, Cosimo, Inc.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

Truth, Opposites, Would Be

William James (2007). “The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy”, p.217, Cosimo, Inc.

Every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.

Lonely, Agony, Individual

William James (2015). “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, p.158, Booklassic

Whilst part of what we perceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part (and it may be the larger part) always comes out of our own mind.

Mind, May, Perceive

William James (2012). “Psychology: The Briefer Course”, p.196, Courier Corporation

The total possible consciousness may be split into parts which co-exist but mutually ignore each other.

Splits, May, Consciousness

William James, Robert D Richardson (2010). “The Heart of William James”, p.93, Harvard University Press

Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us; our hour of triumph is what brings the void.

Struggle, Inspire, Triumph

William James (1956). “The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, and Human Immortality”, p.47, Courier Corporation

Let anyone try, I will not say to arrest, but to notice or to attend to, the present moment of time. One of the most baffling experiences occurs. Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming.

Trying, Gone, Becoming

William James (2012). “Psychology: The Briefer Course”, p.147, Courier Corporation

Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance.

Uprising, Agents, Wheels

The Principles of Psychology vol. 1, ch. 4 (1890)

Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working-day, he may safely leave the result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation.

Inspirational, Education, Morning

William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.127, Courier Corporation

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