Quotes By William James

To spend life for something which outlasts it.

It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.

The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

Time itself comes in drops.

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.

Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

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

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.

Wisdom is learning what to overlook.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one's being added to that being.

There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness, and their companionship in the saintly life need in no way occasion surprise.

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.

I will act as if what I do makes a difference.

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.

One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling.

Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.

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

Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind!