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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.

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

— William James

Leadership

All Quotes by William James

“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

“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

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

— William James

Best

“Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.”

— William James

Truth

“Time itself comes in drops.”

— William James

Time

“'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

“The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.”

— William James

Great

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

— William James

Art

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

— William James

Truth

“Wisdom is learning what to overlook.”

— William James

Learning

“Belief creates the actual fact.”

— William James

Inspirational

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

— William James

Leadership

“The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.”

— William James

Best

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

— William James

God

“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

“Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.”

— William James

Faith

“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

“Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.”

— William James

Happiness

“Man lives for science as well as bread.”

— William James

Science