Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by William James (American Philosopher)

William James (1842–1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. He is considered one of America’s most prominent philosophers and one of the great psychologists of all time. He was the brother of the author Henry James.

Born in New York City, James studied art and then got a medical degree from Harvard. He never practiced as a doctor—instead, he established himself as a member of the Harvard faculty teaching anatomy and physiology, and later psychology and philosophy. In 1872, James together with Charles Sanders Peirce, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Chauncey Wright, and other Harvard intellectuals from the law, medicine, philosophy, and other academic disciplines started a philosophical discussion group called the Metaphysical Club.

James’s most significant contribution to philosophy is the idea of pragmatism—it purported that knowledge is only meaningful when coupled with action. In other words, the practical outcome of an idea is more valuable than the idea itself. James sought a functional definition of truth and described truth as not an abstract idea. The truth of a proposition can be judged only by practical, concrete results; James said, “The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief, and good, too, for definite assignable reasons.”

In psychology, James is credited with introducing the concept of the “stream of consciousness” to describe how an individual’s perceptions, thoughts, memories, sensations, and reactions to events are perceived as a continuous flow. James wrote, “Consciousness … does not appear to itself chopped up in bits … a ‘river’ or ‘stream’ are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described.”

James’s most famous works are The Principles of Psychology (1890) and Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (1902.) The latter laid the foundation of the study of the psychology of religion; it influenced various intellectuals—-from the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung to the novelist Aldous Huxley. Varieties of Religious Experience has been hailed as one of the best non-fiction books of the twentieth century.

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There is a voice inside which speaks and says: “This is the real me!”
William James
Topics: Self-love, Love

As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
William James
Topics: Truth, Persuasion

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.
William James
Topics: Thinking

The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.
William James
Topics: Genius

Failure, then, failure! so the world stamps us at every turn. We strew it with our blunders, our misdeeds, our lost opportunities, with all the memorials of our inadequacy to our vocation. And with what a damning emphasis does it then blot us out! No easy fine, no mere apology or formal expiation, will satisfy the world’s demands, but every pound of flesh exacted is soaked with all its blood. The subtlest forms of suffering known to man are connected with the poisonous humiliations incidental to these results.
William James
Topics: Failure

Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
William James
Topics: Adversity, Fortune, Misfortunes, Acceptance

Wisdom is learning what to overlook.
William James
Topics: Wisdom

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 may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.
William James
Topics: Effort, Action

We don’t laugh because we’re happy—we’re happy because we laugh.
William James
Topics: Laughter

Smitten as we are with the vision of social righteousness, a God indifferent to everything but adulation, and full of partiality for his individual favorites, lacks an essential element of largeness.
William James
Topics: God, Religion

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.
William James
Topics: Potential, Possibilities, Teamwork, Teams

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.
William James
Topics: Belief

Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be into the bargain, is the most formidable of all beasts of prey, and indeed, the only one who preys systematically on his own species.
William James
Topics: Man

Act the part and you will become the part.
William James
Topics: Act

Belief creates the actual fact.
William James
Topics: Belief

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
William James
Topics: Faith

Truth, as any dictionary will tell you, is a property of certain of our ideas. It means their “agreement,” as falsity means their disagreement, with “reality”.
William James
Topics: Reality

We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition.
William James
Topics: Poverty

The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That – with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word ‘success’ – is our national disease.
William James
Topics: Success & Failure, Success

Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.
William James
Topics: Doing Your Best

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.
William James
Topics: Dance, Humor

Faith is one of the forces by which men live; the total absence of it means collapse.
William James
Topics: Faith, Belief

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 his processes to the convenience of individuals.
William James
Topics: Facts

We want all our friends to tell us our bad qualities; it is only the particular ass that does so whom we can’t tolerate.
William James
Topics: Sincerity, Candor

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 law.
William James
Topics: Science

Every time a resolve or fine glow of feeling evaporates without bearing fruit, it is worse than a chance lost; it works to hinder future emotions from taking the normal path of discharge.
William James
Topics: Emotions, Instincts

Men habitually use only a small part of the powers which they possess and which they might use under appropriate circumstances.
William James
Topics: Difficulties, Adversity

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than anything else, will determine its successful outcome.
William James
Topics: Success, Beginnings, Attitude

Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that insures the successful outcome of our venture.
William James
Topics: Positive Attitudes, Optimism

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.
William James
Topics: Truth, Change

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