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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.

“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.”

— William James

Good

All Quotes by William James

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”

— William James

Art

“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”

— William James

Great

“There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker if sad, it must not scream or curse.”

— William James

Attitude

“Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.”

— William James

Power

“Wisdom is learning what to overlook.”

— William James

Learning

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”

— William James

Motivational

“Man lives for science as well as bread.”

— William James

Science

“The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.”

— William James

Men

“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.”

— William James

Faith

“If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door.”

— William James

God

“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.”

— William James

Good

“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.”

— William James

Change

“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

“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

“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

“Time itself comes in drops.”

— William James

Time

“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.”

— William James

Business

“It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.”

— William James

Age

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

— William James

Life

“There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.”

— William James

Failure