"Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea……" — William James
"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 life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiential terms?"
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William James
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484 Quotes by William James
William James has 484 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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I take it that no man is educated who has never dallied with the thought of suicide.
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Success plus Self-esteem equals Pretensions.
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To know psychology, therefore, is absolutely no guarantee that we shall be good teacher.
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There is a stream, a succession of states, or waves, or fields (or whatever you please to call them), of…
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Man, whatever else he may be, is primarily a practical being, whose mind is given him to aid in adapting…
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No reception without reaction, no impression without correlative expression, -this is the great maxim which the teacher ought never to…
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Habit is second nature, or rather . . . ten times nature.
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We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and as carefully…
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It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association
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The entire routine of our memorized acquisitions is a consequence of nothing but the Law of Contiguity. The words of…
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Any object not interesting in itself may become interesting through becoming associated with an object in which an interest already…
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An idea will infect another with its own emotional interest when they have become both associated together into any sort…
See all 484 quotes by William James »
More Actual Quotes
This quote is filed under Actual Quotes,
one of 1,266 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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The fatigue produced on the muscles of the human frame does not altogether depend on the actual force employed in…
— Charles Babbage
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Where do we say that a cell became a blade of grass, which became a starfish, which became a cat,…
— Michele Bachmann
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The Canadian run can be no different, at least in terms of actual running.
— Dennis Banks
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Fishing is boring, unless you catch an actual fish, and then it is disgusting.
— Dave Barry
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I do love to eavesdrop. It's inspirational, not only for subject matter but for actual dialogue, the way people talk.
— Lynda Barry
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Percentage margins don't matter. What matters always is dollar margins: the actual dollar amount. Companies are valued not on their…
— Jeff Bezos
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It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better.
— Ambrose Bierce
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Sure, I suffered a lot. But it's not like the end of the world and it's not who I am.…
— Ben Affleck
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I've thought for the last decade or so, the only actual place raw truth was seeping through in newspapers was…
— Elayne Boosler
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The importance to the writer of first writing must be out of all proportion of the actual value of what…
— Elizabeth Bowen
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Congress acknowledged that society's accumulated myths and fears about disability and disease are as handicapping as are the physical limitations…
— William J. Brennan
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You don't want flame to hit your food. Flame is bad. Flame does nasty things to food. It makes soot…
— Alton Brown
See all 1,266 Actual Quotes »