"Romeo wants Juliet as the filings want the……" — William James
"Romeo wants Juliet as the filings want the magnet; and if no obstacles intervene he moves towards her by as straight a line as they. But Romeo and Juliet, if a wall be built between them, do not remain idiotically pressing their faces against its opposite sides like the magnet and the filings with the card. Romeo soon finds a circuitous way, by scaling the wall or otherwise, of touching Juliet's lips directly. With the filings the path is fixed; whether it reaches the end depends on accidents. With the lover it is the end which is fixed, the path may be modified indefinitely."
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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 Accidents Quotes
This quote is filed under Accidents Quotes,
one of 1,237 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
— Aristotle
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Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of…
— Saint Augustine
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Stardom isn't a profession, it's an accident.
— Lauren Bacall
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Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing…
— Robert Baden-Powell
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Accident counts for as much in companionship as in marriage.
— Henry Adams
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The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and…
— Neal Barnard
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I had - after I sang the 'Star Spangled Banner' so badly, after my tragic singing accident, after that, you…
— Roseanne Barr
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Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects.
— Dave Barry
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No one in the United States has become seriously ill or has died because of any kind of accident at…
— Joe Barton
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What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will…
— Ludwig van Beethoven
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Idle people are often bored and bored people, unless they sleep a lot, are cruel. It is not accident that…
— Renata Adler
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The Communist regime didn't consider this to be a shining moment in history and assigned no heroism to it. They…
— Kathryn Bigelow
See all 1,237 Accidents Quotes »