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We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

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
Causes
Savage
Choices
Savages
Good
Fierce
Men
Choice
Difference
Cause
Ready
Differences

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A good hypothesis in science must have other properties than those of the phenomenon it is immediately invoked to explain, otherwise it is not prolific enough.
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The subjectivist in morals, when his moral feelings are at war with the facts about him, is always free to seek harmony by toningdown the sensitiveness of the feelings.
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Truth is one species of good, and not, as is usually supposed, a category distinct from good, and co-ordinate with it
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You can alter your life by altering the state of your mind.
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One hears of the mechanical equivalent of heat. What we now need to discover in the social realm is the moral equivalent of war: something heroic that will speak to men as universally as war does, and yet will be as compatible with their spiritual selves as war has proved itself to be incompatible.
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... no bell in us tolls to let us know for certain when truth is in our grasp.
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Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them.
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The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.
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When happiness is actually in possession, the thought of evil can no more acquire the feeling of reality than the thought of good can gain reality when melancholy rules. To the man actively happy, from whatever cause, evil simply cannot then and there be believed in.
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If you give appreciation to people, you win their goodwill.
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We must not just patch and tinker with life. We must keep renewing it. Embrace novelty and uniqueness.
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Tell him to live by yes and no - yes to everything good, no to everything bad.
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No decision is, in itself, a decision.
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Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.
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We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and as carefully guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous.
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Our beliefs are really rules for action.
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The suspicion is in the air nowadays that the superiority of one of our formulas to another may not consist so much in its literal 'objectivity,' as in subjective qualities like its usefulness, its 'elegance,' or its congruity with our residual beliefs
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From all these facts there emerges a very simple abstract program for the teacher to follow in keeping the attention of the child: Begin with the line of his native interests, and offer him objects that have some immediate connection with these.
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Any object not interesting in itself may become interesting through becoming associated with an object in which an interest already exists.
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Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
William James