- A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely re-arranging their prejudices. William James »
- Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune. William James »
- Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. William James »
- An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible. William James »
- Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact. William James »
- Circumstance does not make me, it reveals me. William James »
- Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way. William James »
- How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure. William James »
- Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. William James »
- I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capil William James »
- If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. Try the 'as if' technique. William James »
- Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference. William James »
- Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his lttle finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed. William James »
- Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul None is more gladdening or fruitful than to know You can regenerate and make yourself what you will. William James »
- Only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom. William James »
- Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture. William James »
- Our minds thus grow in spots and like grease spots, the spots spread. But we let them spread as little as possible we keep unaltered as much of our old knowledge, as many of our old prejudices and beliefs, as we can. William James »
- Religion is the monumental chapter in the history of human egotism. William James »
- Religion, whatever it is, is a man's total reaction upon life. William James »
- The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. William James »
- The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. William James »
- The essence of genius is to know what to overlook. William James »
- The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. William James »
- The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. William James »
- The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. William James »
- The man whose acquisitions stick is the man who is always achieving and advancing whilst his neighbors, spending most of their time in relearning what they once knew but have forgotten, simply hold their own. William James »
- 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 »
- There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. William James »
- There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it. William James »
- There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers. William James »
- This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it. William James »
- When a thing is new, people say 'It is not true.' Later, when its truth becomes obvious, they say 'It is not important.' Finally, when its importance cannot be denied, they say 'Anyway, it is not new.' William James »
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