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William James

55 quotes

William James (1842–1910) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and the first educator to offer a course in psychology in the United States. Often called the "Father of American Psychology," James was a leading thinker in pragmatism and functionalism whose ideas about consciousness, habit, and belief continue to influence philosophy and psychology.

“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.”

— William James

Attitude

All Quotes by William James

“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.”

— William James

Good

“Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.”

— William James

Power

“Individuality is founded in feeling and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done.”

— William James

Work

“The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour.”

— William James

Nature

“If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.”

— William James

Leadership

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

— William James

Faith

“To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.”

— William James

Best

“To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.”

— William James

Change

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

— William James

Knowledge

“Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.”

— William James

Attitude

“This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.”

— William James

Life

“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.”

— William James

Attitude

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”

— William James

Great

“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”

— William James

Humor

“A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.”

— William James

Life

“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!”

— William James

Faith

“We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.”

— William James

Truth

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

— William James

Attitude

“'Pure experience' is the name I gave to the immediate flux of life which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories.”

— William James

Experience

“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

Happiness