Truth Quotes by William James

Truth in our ideas means their power to work.

— William James

Truth is something that happens to an idea.

— William James

Truth happens to an idea

— William James

To know an object is to lead to it through a context which the world provides

— William James

Truth for us is simply a collective name for verification processes

— William James

There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough.

— William James

... no bell in us tolls to let us know for certain when truth is in our grasp.

— William James

Theory must mediate between all previous truths and certain new experiences

— William James

There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood bu those who hear it.

— William James

Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way

— William James

To consider hypotheses is surely always better than to dogmatize ins blaue hinein

— William James

“In truths dependent on our personal action, then, faith based on desire is certainly a lawful and possibly an indispensable thing.”

— William James

I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather I fear to lose truth by the pretension to possess it…

— William James

... A rule of thinking which would absolutely prevent me from acknowledging certain kinds of truth if those ... truths were really…

— William James

In the last analysis, then, we believe that we all know and think about and talk about the same world because we…

— William James

True is the name for whatever idea starts the verification process, useful is the name for its completed function in experience

— William James

Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges…

— William James

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

Woe to him whose beliefs play fast and loose with the order which realities follow in his experience; they will lead him…

— 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

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

“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

“Believe truth! Shun error!-these, we see, are two materially different laws; and by choosing between them we may end by coloring differently…

— William James

“It never occurs to most of us .. that the question 'what is the truth' is no real question (being irrelative to…

— William James

“Moral scepticism can no more be refuted or proved by logic than intellectual scepticism can. When we stick to it that there…

— William James

[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

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 most ancient parts of truth . . . also once were plastic. They also were called true for human reasons. They…

— 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 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

“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

“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

“See the exquisite contrast of the types of mind! The pragmatist clings to facts and concreteness, observes truth at its work in…

— William James

“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

'What would be better for us to believe!' This sounds very like a definition of truth

— William James

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

— William James

An experience, perceptual or conceptual, must conform to reality in order to be true

— William James

Truth is what will be steadily borne out by subsequent experience

— William James

The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires.

— William James

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

— William James