Facts Quotes by William James

Most men have a good memory for facts connected with their own pursuits.

— William James

Our beliefs and our attention are the same fact.

— William James

The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact.

— William James

Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system

— William James

Each of us is in fact what he is almost exclusively by virtue of his imitative-ness.

— William James

Owing to the fact that all experience is a process, no point of view can ever be the last one

— William James

Everything which is demanded is by that fact a good.

— William James

But facts are facts, and if we only get enough of them theyare sure to combine.

— William James

Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout.

— William James

The subjectivist in morals, when his moral feelings are at war with the facts about him, is always free to seek harmony…

— William James

Divinity lies all around us, but society remains too hidebound to accept that fact...The mother sea and the fountain-head of all religions…

— William James

Science, like life, feeds on its own decay. New facts burst old rules; then newly divined conceptions bind old and new together…

— William James

Science herself consults her heart when she lays it down that the infinite ascertainment of fact and correction of false belief are…

— William James

Contemporary philosophers, even the rationalistic minded ones, have on the whole agreed that no one has intelligibly banished the mystery of fact.

— William James

Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation.

— William James

Our ideas must agree with realities, be such realities concrete or abstract, be they facts or be they principles, under penalty of…

— William James

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

But when all is said and done, the fact remains that some teachers have a naturally inspiring presence and can make their…

— William James

Truths emerge from facts, but they dip forward into facts again and add to them; which facts again create or reveal new…

— William James

The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and…

— William James

Man is essentially the imitative animal. His whole educabilityand in fact the whole history of civilization depend on this trait, which his…

— William James

It is not probable that the reader will be satisfied with any of these solutions, and contemporary philosophers, even rationalistically minded ones,…

— William James

As we take, in fact, a general view of the wonderful stream of our consciousness, what strikes us first is this different…

— William James

From all these facts there emerges a very simple abstract program for the teacher to follow in keeping the attention of the…

— William James

The entire routine of our memorized acquisitions, for example, is a consequence of nothing but the Law of Contiguity. The words of…

— William James

We [may] answer the question: "Why is snow white?" by saying, "For the same reason that soap-suds or whipped eggs are white"-in…

— William James

Round about the accredited and orderly facts of every science there ever floats a sort of dust-cloud of exceptional observations, of occurrences…

— William James

I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can attain on a given day to absolutely incorrigible and unimprovable…

— William James

We ought, all of us, to realize each other in this intense, pathetic, and important way. If you say that this is…

— William James

If you say that this is absurd, that we cannot be in love with everyone at once, I merely point out to…

— William James

Mankind's common instinct for reality has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism. In heroism, we feel, life's…

— William James

If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing. It would take us…

— William James

'Facts' are the bounds of human knowledge, set for it, not by it.

— William James

A remarkable parallel, which I think has never been noticed, obtains between the facts of social evolution on the one hand, and…

— William James

Neither moral relations nor the moral law can swing in vacuo. Their only habitat can be a mind which feels them; and…

— William James

The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed…

— William James

Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation. There is in…

— William James

Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events. Its verity is in fact an event, a process:…

— William James

...These healers...my intellect has been unable to assimilate their theories…But their facts are patent and startling; and anything that interferes with the…

— William James

Humanism . . . is not a single hypothesis or theorem, and it dwells on no new facts. It is rather a…

— William James