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Wisdom is learning what to overlook.

William James

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William James
Age: 68 †
Born: 1842
Born: January 11
Died: 1910
Died: August 26
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
W. James
Overlook
Philosophical
Learning
Wisdom
Experience

More quotes by William James

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When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome.
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The deepest hunger in human beings is the desire to be appreciated.
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Man lives by habits indeed, but what he lives for is thrill and excitements. ... From time immemorial war has been ... the supremely thrilling excitement.
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Geniuses are commonly believed to excel other men in their power of sustained attention . . . But it is their genius making them attentive, not their attention making geniuses of them.
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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.
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There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness.
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Everyone knows that on any given day there are energies slumbering in him which the incitement's of that day do not call forth. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. The human individual usually lives far within his limits.
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It would probably astound each of them beyond measure to be let into his neighbor's mind and to find how different the scenery there was from that in his own.
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If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door.
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For the moment, what we attend to is reality.
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If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.
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When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.
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An educated memory depends on an organized system of associations and its goodness depends on two of their peculiarities: first, on the persistency of the associations and, second, on their number.
William James
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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.
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From a pragmatic point of view, the difference between living against a background of foreigness (an indifferent Universe) and one of intimacy (a benevolent Universe) means the difference between a general habit of wariness and one of trust.
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An idea will infect another with its own emotional interest when they have become both associated together into any sort of a mental total.
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A paradise of inward tranquility seems to be faith's usual result.
William James
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The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.
William James
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Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us our hour of triumph is what brings the void. Not the Jews of the captivity, but those of the days of Solomon 's glory are those from whom the pessimistic utterances in our Bible come.
William James
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A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
William James