I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences. — William James Copy Share Image
What the whole community comes to believe in grasps the individual as in a vise. — William James Copy Share Image
There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough. — William James Copy Share Image
It is so human a book that I don't see how belief in its divine authority can survive the reading of it. — William James Copy Share Image
Modern man . . . has not ceased to be credulous . . . the need to believe haunts him. — William James Copy Share Image
In any project the important factor is your belief. Without belief, there can be no successful outcome. — William James Copy Share Image
Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible. — William James Copy Share Image
Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture. — William James Copy Share Image
I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain… — William James Copy Share Image
Science herself consults her heart when she lays it down that the infinite ascertainment of fact and correction of false belief are… — William James Copy Share Image
Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is still theoretically possible ... faith is the readiness to act in a cause… — William James Copy Share Image
Belief is desecrated when given to unproved and unquestioned statements for the solace and private pleasure of the believer . . .… — William James Copy Share Image
A new opinion counts as true just in proportion as it gratifies the individual's desire to assimilate the novel in his experience… — William James Copy Share Image
Woe to him whose beliefs play fast and loose with the order which realities follow in his experience; they will lead him… — William James Copy Share Image
“Belief and doubt are living attitudes, and involve conduct on our part. Our only way, for example, of doubting, or refusing to… — William James Copy Share Image
Since belief is measured by action, he who forbids us to believe religion to be true, necessarily also forbids us to act… — William James Copy Share Image
To begin with, our knowledge grows in spots. The spots may be large or small, but the knowledge ever grows all over...… — William James Copy Share Image
That reality is 'independent' means that there is something in every experience that escapes our arbitrary control. If it be a sensible… — William James Copy Share Image
What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong… — William James Copy Share Image
Truths emerge from facts, but they dip forward into facts again and add to them; which facts again create or reveal new… — William James Copy Share Image
The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the… — William James Copy Share Image
Our minds thus grow in spots; and like grease-spots, the spots spread. But we let them spread as little as possible: we… — William James Copy Share Image
The suspicion is in the air nowadays that the superiority of one of our formulas to another may not consist so much… — William James Copy Share Image
Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true… — William James Copy Share Image
To begin with our knowledge grows in spots. ..What you first gain, ... is probably a small amount of new information, a… — William James Copy Share Image
What do believers in the Absolute mean by saving that their belief affords them comfort? They mean that since in the Absolute… — William James Copy Share Image
To plead the organic causation of a religious state of mind, then, in refutation of its claim to possess superior spiritual value,… — William James Copy Share Image
“Since belief is measured by action, he who forbids us to believe religion to be true, necessarily also forbids us to act… — William James Copy Share Image
“Our faith is faith in some one else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case. Our belief in… — William James Copy Share Image
The belief in free-will is not in the least incompatible with the belief in Providence, provided you do not restrict the Providence… — William James Copy Share Image
Considering the inner fitness of things, one would rather think that the very first act of a will endowed with freedom should… — William James Copy Share Image
The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it." "This life is worth living, we can… — William James Copy Share Image
Intellectualism' is the belief that our mind comes upon a world complete in itself, and has the duty of ascertaining its contents;… — William James Copy Share Image
The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief, and good, too, for definite,… — William James Copy Share Image
Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world. — William James Copy Share
We are all potentially such sick men. The sanest and best of us are of one clay with lunatics and prison-inmates. And whenever we… — William James Copy Share
In the dim background of our mind we know meanwhile what we ought to be doing: getting up, dressing ourselves, answering the person who… — William James Copy Share
“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… — William James Copy Share
Woe to him whose beliefs play fast and loose with the order which realities follow in his experience; they will lead him nowhere or… — William James Copy Share
We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be. — William James Copy Share
Most people, probably, are in doubt about certain matters ascribed to their past. They may have seen them, may have said them, done them,… — William James Copy Share
“How soon, indeed, are human things forgotten! As we meet here this morning, the Southern sun is shining on their place of burial, and… — William James Copy Share
There can be no difference anywhere that does not make a difference somewhere. — William James Copy Share
It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. — William James Copy Share
The pragmatist turns away from abstraction and insufficiency, from verbal solutions, from bad a priori reasons, from fixed principles, closed systems, and pretended absolutes… — William James Copy Share
