William James Quotes

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

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 fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

What holds attention determines action.

The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly.

You may not get everything you dream about, but you will never get anything you don't dream about.

A man may not achieve everything he has dreamed, but he will never achieve anything great without having dreamed it first.

Good-humor is a philosophic state of mind; it seems to say to Nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us. I maintain that one should always talk of philosophy with a smile.

Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.

Experience is the great teacher; unfortunately, experience leaves mental scars, and scar tissue contracts.

Anything you may hold firmly in your imagination can be yours.

If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick.

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.

Truth is something that happens to an idea.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.

Our view of the world is truly shaped by what we decide to hear.

As long as there are postmen, life will have zest.

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

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 comes out of our own mind.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

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 the plastic state.

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

Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don't want to do

To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.

Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world.

Effort is a measure of a Man.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

Success plus Self-esteem equals Pretensions.

The mind, in short, works on the data it receives very much as the sculptor works on his block of stone.

A man of sense is never discouraged by difficulties; he redoubles his industry and his diligence, he perseveres and infallibly prevails at last.

My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.

An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.

A thing is important if anyone think it important.

The word 'cause' is an altar to an unknown god.

I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are IMPOSSIBLE.

Spiritual energy flows in and produces effects, psychological or material, within the phenomenal world.

Fear of life in one form or another is the great thing to exorcise.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

Man alone of all the creatures of earth can change his own pattern. Man alone is the architect of his own destiny.

The greatest weapon we have to combat stress is the ability to choose our thoughts.

Man can change his life simply by changing his attitude.

A winner's attitude: it may be difficult, but it's possible. A loser's attitude: It may be possible, but it's too difficult.

The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action.

We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.

There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.

It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all.

If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.