William James Quotes - Page 21

Quotes about:

Acceptance Achievement Adversity Affection Age Alcohol Animals

Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not.

William James

Truth, Guides, Sensible

William James (2015). “The Meaning of Truth: Human Understanding”, p.31, 谷月社

8 Copy quote
But when all is said and done, the fact remains that some teachers have a naturally inspiring presence and can make their exercises interesting, whilst others simply cannot. And psychology and general pedagogy here confess their failure, and hand things over to the deeper spring of human personality to conduct the task.

William James

Teacher, Philosophy, Spring

William James (2013). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.53, Courier Corporation

4 Copy quote
Our ideas must agree with realities, be such realities concrete or abstract

William James

Truth, Reality, Ideas

William James (2007). “Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking”, p.128, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

6 Copy quote
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.

William James

Love, Life, Gratitude

"How About a Little Hope?" by Litsa Dremousis, www.esquire.com. July 30, 2007.

10 Copy quote
Faith is one of the forces by which men live, and the total absence of it means collapse

William James

Mean, Men, Absence

4 Copy quote
If theological ideas prove to have a value for concrete life, they will be true, for pragmatism, in the sense of being good for so much. How much more they are true, will depend entirely on their relations to the other truths that also have to be acknowledged.

William James

Ideas, Relation, Being True

William James (2012). “Pragmatism”, p.29, Courier Corporation

8 Copy quote
Our ideas must agree with realities, be such realities concrete or abstract, be they facts or be they principles, under penalty of endless inconsistency and frustration.

William James

Reality, Frustration, Ideas

William James (2007). “Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking”, p.128, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

9 Copy quote
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.

William James

Memories, Fall, Mean

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

4 Copy quote
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.

William James

Mother, Lying, Mystical Experiences

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

William James

Philosophy, Men, Social

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

7 Copy quote
That which is most personal, is most interesting.

William James

Interesting, Most Interesting

4 Copy quote
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.

William James

Adolescence, Humans, Remains

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

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

William James

Evil, Healthy, Individual

7 Copy quote
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.

William James

Art, Mistake, Teaching

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

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

William James

Baby, Eye, Confusion

1890 The Principles of Psychology, ch.13.

5 Copy quote
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.

William James

Statistics, Enough, Hypothesis

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

4 Copy quote
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.

William James

Dog, May, Affection

4 Copy quote
Man lives for science as well as bread.

William James

Science, Men, Bread

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

8 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 so as positively to hinder future resolutions and emotions from taking the normal path of discharge.

William James

Inspirational, Feelings, Path

"The Principles of Psychology".

7 Copy quote
In the dim background of our mind we know meanwhile what we ought to be doing: getting up, dressing ourselves, answering the person who has spoken to us, trying to make the next step in our reasoning. But somehow we cannot start.

William James

Philosophical, Surfing, Mind

"Psychology: The Briefer Course".

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

William James

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

5 Copy quote
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.

William James

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

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

William James

Pain, Mean, Energy

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

4 Copy quote
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.

William James

Truth, Real, Thinking

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

9 Copy quote
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.

William James

Zest, Needs, Done

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

4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Charles Sanders Peirce

G. Stanley Hall

William James

Follow

Born: January 11, 1842
Died: August 26, 1910
Occupation: Philosopher
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics