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
Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible. — William James Copy Share Image
The most any one can do is to confess as candidly as he can the grounds for the faith that is in… — William James Copy Share Image
It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith… — 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
These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe life is worth living and your belief will… — 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
“In truths dependent on our personal action, then, faith based on desire is certainly a lawful and possibly an indispensable thing.” — 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
Every sort of energy and endurance, of courage and capacity for handling life's evils, is set free in those who have religious… — 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 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
“...the faith state...is the psychic correlate of a biological growth reducing contending-desires to one direction... [p.272]” — William James Copy Share Image
These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief… — William James Copy Share Image
Truth is what works. Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so… — William James Copy Share Image
“To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense… — 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
![“...the faith state...is the psychic correlate of a biological growth reducing contending-desires to one direction... [p.272]” quote by William James](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/5b5/william-james-228_faith_the-faith-state-is-the-psychic-correlate_831441.png)
