Quotes by
William James |
1842-1910 , American philosopher
A pioneering American psychologist and philosopher. He developed the philosophical perspective known as radical empiricism, and wrote influential books on the science of psychology, the psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism. | 42 quotes | 3,439 visits |
Quotations
| • | You can alter your life by altering the state of your mind. 15 |
| • | We may be in the Universe as dogs and cats are in our libraries, seeing the books and hearing the conversation, but having no inkling of the meaning of it all. 12 |
| • | Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality. 12 |
| • | There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference. 10 |
| • | Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power. 10 |
| • | Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. 9 |
| • | There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking. 8 |
| • | The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck. 8 |
| • | The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude. 7 |
| • | A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. 7 |
| • | To kill time is not murder, it's suicide. 7 |
| • | The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook. 6 |
| • | The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. 6 |
| • | Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. 5 |
| • | We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep. 5 |
| • | Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is. 5 |
| • | Most unhappiness is caused because people listen to themselves... instead of talking to themselves. 5 |
| • | Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice. 5 |
| • | The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. 4 |
| • | The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. 4 |
| • | Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism. 4 |
| • | The sovereign cure for worry is prayer. 4 |
| • | Begin to be now what you will be hereafter. 4 |
| • | Freedom is only necessity understood. 3 |
| • | If any organism fails to fulfil its potentialities, it becomes sick. 3 |
| • | Procrastination is attitude's natural assassin. There's nothing so fatiguing as an uncompleted task. 3 |
| • | Philosophy is an unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly. 3 |
| • | Age is a very high price to pay for maturity. 3 |
| • | A sense of humor is just common sense dancing. 3 |
| • | There are two lives, the natural and the spiritual, and we must lose the one before we can participate in the other. 3 |
| • | Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. 3 |
| • | Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact. 3 |
| • | There are 3 rules to follow if you want to change: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions. 3 |
| • | Act the part and you will become the part. 3 |
| • | A thing is important if anyone think it important. 3 |
| • | We don’t laugh because we’re happy, we’re happy because we laugh. 2 |
| • | Wherever you are, it is your friends who make your world. 2 |
| • | If merely “feeling good” could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience. 2 |
| • | When a thing is new, people say: ‘It is not true.’ Later, when its truth becomes obvious, they say: ‘It is not important.’ Finally, when its importance cannot be denied, they say: ‘Anyway, it is not new’. 2 |
| • | When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice. 2 |
| • | If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it. 2 |
| • | Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not. 2 |
