There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or… — William James Copy Share Image
I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain… — William James Copy Share Image
“When we survey the whole field of religion, we find a great variety in the thoughts that have prevailed there; but the… — William James Copy Share Image
Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible. — William James Copy Share Image
At bottom, the whole concern of religion is with the manner of our acceptance of the universe. — William James Copy Share Image
Who does not see that we are likely to ascertain the distinctive significance of religious melancholy and happiness, or of religious trances,… — 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
Spiritual energy flows in and produces effects in the phenomenal world. — 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
To plead the organic causation of a religious state of mind, then, in refutation of its claim to possess superior spiritual value,… — William James Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Spiritual energy flows in and produces effects, psychological or material, within the phenomenal world. — William James Copy Share Image
But petitional prayer is only one department of prayer; and if we take the word in the wider sense as meaning every… — 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
Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case. — 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
“Religious feeling is thus an absolute addition to the subject's range of life. It gives him a new sphere of power. When… — William James Copy Share Image
“The turbulent billows of the fretful surface leave the deep parts of the ocean undisturbed; and to him who has a hold… — William James Copy Share Image
Great indeed is Fear; but it is not, as our military enthusiasts believe and try to make us believe, the only stimulus… — William James Copy Share Image
If any one phrase could gather its (religion's) universal message, that phrase would be, - All is not vanity in this Universe,… — William James Copy Share Image
In its broadest term, religion says that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in rightful relations to… — William James Copy Share Image
Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual… — William James Copy Share Image
Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world. — William James Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. — William James Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
