There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood bu those who hear it. — William James Copy Share Image
'What would be better for us to believe!' This sounds very like a definition of truth — William James Copy Share Image
Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way — William James Copy Share Image
To consider hypotheses is surely always better than to dogmatize ins blaue hinein — William James Copy Share Image
... no bell in us tolls to let us know for certain when truth is in our grasp. — William James Copy Share Image
Theory must mediate between all previous truths and certain new experiences — William James Copy Share Image
To know an object is to lead to it through a context which the world provides — William James Copy Share Image
If WE claim only reasonable probability, it will be as much as men who love the truth can ever at any given… — William James Copy Share Image
Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation. — William James Copy Share Image
The truth remains that, after adolescence has begun, "words, words, words," must constitute a large part, and an always larger part as… — William James Copy Share Image
Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges… — William James Copy Share Image
True is the name for whatever idea starts the verification process, useful is the name for its completed function in experience — 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
In the last analysis, then, we believe that we all know and think about and talk about the same world because we… — William James Copy Share Image
In this real world of sweat and dirt, it seems to me that when a view of things is 'noble,' that ought… — William James Copy Share Image
Essential truth, the truth of the intellectualists, the truth with no one thinking it, is like the coat that fits tho no… — William James Copy Share Image
“Moral scepticism can no more be refuted or proved by logic than intellectual scepticism can. When we stick to it that there… — William James Copy Share Image
[Pragmatism's] only test of probable truth is what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life… — William James Copy Share Image
“It never occurs to most of us .. that the question 'what is the truth' is no real question (being irrelative to… — William James Copy Share Image
There is no doubt that healthy-mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine, because the evil facts which it refuses positively to account… — 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
“I, therefore, for one, cannot see my way to accepting the agnostic rules for truth-seeking, or wilfully agree to keep my willing… — William James Copy Share Image
“We must know the truth; and we must avoid error,--these are our first and great commandments as would-be knowers; but they are… — William James Copy Share Image
“Common-Law judges sometimes talk about the law, and schoolmasters talk about the latin tongue, in a way to make their hearers think… — William James Copy Share Image
I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can attain on a given day to absolutely incorrigible and unimprovable… — William James Copy Share Image
The most ancient parts of truth . . . also once were plastic. They also were called true for human reasons. They… — William James Copy Share Image
“See the exquisite contrast of the types of mind! The pragmatist clings to facts and concreteness, observes truth at its work in… — 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
“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
There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough. — William James Copy Share Image
But facts are facts, and if we only get enough of them theyare sure to combine. — William James Copy Share Image
Our ideas must agree with realities, be such realities concrete or abstract — William James Copy Share Image
“I fear to lose truth by the pretension to possess it already wholly.” — William James Copy Share Image
The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths. — 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
![“[Pragmatism's] only test of probable truth is what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life best and combines with the collectivity of experience's demands, nothing being omitted.” quote by William James](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/072/william-james-228_art-of-life_pragmatism-s-only-test-of-probable-truth_942773.jpg)
