May Quotes by William James

Why may we not be in the universe, as our dogs and cats are in our drawingrooms and libraries?

— William James

Asceticism may be a mere expression of organic hardihood, disgusted with too much ease.

— William James

You may not get everything you dream about, but you will never get anything you don't dream about.

— 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

The teachers of this country, one may say, have its future in their hands.

— William James

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

— William James

The total possible consciousness may be split into parts which co-exist but mutually ignore each other.

— William James

Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions.

— William James

The war-function has grasped us so far; but the constructive interests may some day seem no less imperative, and impose on the…

— William James

Men are now proud of belonging to a conquering nation, and without a murmur they lay down their persons and their wealth,…

— William James

The most any one can do is to confess as candidly as he can the grounds for the faith that is in…

— William James

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need…

— William James

The more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike,…

— William James

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one…

— William James

Mental fire is what won't burn real sticks; mental water is what won't necessarily (though of course it may) put out even…

— William James

Man, whatever else he may be, is primarily a practical being, whose mind is given him to aid in adapting him to…

— William James

Old-fashioned determinism was what we may call hard determinism. It did not shrink from such words as fatality, bondage of the will,…

— William James

Creatures extremely low in the intellectual scale may have conception. All that is required is that they should recognize the same experience…

— 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

Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to…

— William James

Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual…

— William James

In this real world of sweat and dirt, it seems to me that when a view of things is 'noble,' that ought…

— William James

The stream of thought flows on; but most of its segments fall into the bottomless abyss of oblivion. Of some, no memory…

— William James

Of course, this has its good side as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so may separate…

— 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

The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly. What can be more base and unworthy than the…

— William James

In youth we may have an absolutely new experience, subjective or objective, every hour of the day. Apprehension is vivid, retentiveness strong,…

— William James

Compared with men, it is probable that brutes neither attend to abstract characters, nor have associations by similarity. Their thoughts probably pass…

— William James

Romeo wants Juliet as the filings want the magnet; and if no obstacles intervene he moves towards her by as straight a…

— William James

“However inadequate our ideas of causal efficacy may be, we are less wide of the mark when we say that our ideas…

— William James

What do believers in the Absolute mean by saving that their belief affords them comfort? They mean that since in the Absolute…

— William James

Anything you may hold firmly in your imagination can be yours.

— William James

Nature in her unfathomable designs had mixed us of clay and flame, of brain and mind, that the two things hang indubitably…

— William James

We may be in the Universe as dogs and cats are in our libraries, seeing the books and hearing the conversation, but…

— William James

The states of consciousness are all that psychology needs to do her work with. Metaphysics or theology may prove the Soul to…

— William James

Whilst part of what we perceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part (and it may be the…

— William James

Most people, probably, are in doubt about certain matters ascribed to their past. They may have seen them, may have said them,…

— William James

Any object not interesting in itself may become interesting through becoming associated with an object in which an interest already exists.

— William James

Both thought and feeling are determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or by thought.

— William James

A winner's attitude: it may be difficult, but it's possible. A loser's attitude: It may be possible, but it's too difficult.

— William James