All William James Quotes
- Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it… Action
- The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually… Character
- Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our… All
- Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as… Bank
- Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in… Become Mere
- There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad,… Any
- The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot… Accommodate
- Whilst part of what we perceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part (and it may be the larger part) always… Always Comes
- Science, like life, feeds on its own decay. New facts burst old rules; then newly divined conceptions bind old and new together into a reconciling… Bind
- There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference. Degree
- I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather I fear to lose truth by the pretension to possess it already wholly. Already Wholly
- I am done with great things and big things, great institutions and big success, and I am for those tiny, invisible molecular moral forces that… Big
- A great nation is not saved by wars, it is saved by acts without external picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly;… Acts
- If you can change your mind, you can change your life. Change
- Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism. Chapter
- Anything you may hold firmly in your imagination can be yours. Firmly
- Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's… Actual
- The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers. Among
- Actions seems to follow feeling, but really actions and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of… Act
- If this life is not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a… Better