Firsts Quotes by William James

The first thing that intellect does with an object is to class it with something else.

— William James

My thinking is first and last and always for the sake of my doing, and I can only do one thing at…

— William James

My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.

— William James

The first lecture in psychology that I ever heard was the first I ever gave.

— William James

The first thing to learn in intercourse with others is non-interference with their own particular ways of being happy, provided those ways…

— 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

A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.

— William James

Considering the inner fitness of things, one would rather think that the very first act of a will endowed with freedom should…

— William James

An educated memory depends on an organized system of associations; and its goodness depends on two of their peculiarities: first, on the…

— William James

The difference between the first and second-best things in art absolutely seems to escape verbal definition -- it is a matter of…

— William James

If there is aught of good in the style, it is the result of ceaseless toil in rewriting. Everything comes out wrong…

— William James

To be fertile in hypotheses is the first perquisite of creativity and to be willing to throw them away the moment experience…

— William James

Consciousness... does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as 'chain' or 'train' do not describe it fitly as…

— William James

Religions have approved themselves; they have ministered to sundry vital needs which they found reigning. When they violated other needs too strongly,…

— William James

The first thing the intellect does with an object is to class it along with something else. But any object that is…

— William James

The last peculiarity of consciousness to which attention is to be drawn in this first rough description of its stream is that…

— William James

If things are ever to move upward, some one must take the first step, and assume the risk of it. No one…

— William James

I originally studied medicine in order to be a physiologist, but I drifted into psychology and philosophy from a sort of fatality.…

— William James

The exercise of voluntary attention in the schoolroom must therefore be counted one of the most important points of training that take…

— William James

If there is aught of good in the style, it is the result of ceaseless toil in rewriting. Everything comes out wrong…

— 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

To begin with, our knowledge grows in spots. The spots may be large or small, but the knowledge ever grows all over...…

— William James

The first effect of the mind growing cultivated is that processes once multiple get to be performed in a single act. Lazarus…

— William James

To begin with our knowledge grows in spots. ..What you first gain, ... is probably a small amount of new information, a…

— William James

Our volitional habits depend, then, first, on what the stock of ideas is which we have; and, second, on the habitual coupling…

— William James

A man may not achieve everything he has dreamed, but he will never achieve anything great without having dreamed it first.

— William James

First... a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is…

— William James