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It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

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
Wells
Well
Plaster
Never
Plasters
Like
Soften
World
Birthday
Thirty
Age
Character

More quotes by William James

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There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.
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We can act as if there were a God feel as if we were free consider Nature as if she were full of special designs lay plans as if we were to be immortal and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life.
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The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.
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Do every day or two something for no other reason than its difficulty.
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But when all is said and done, the fact remains that some teachers have a naturally inspiring presence and can make their exercises interesting, whilst others simply cannot. And psychology and general pedagogy here confess their failure, and hand things over to the deeper spring of human personality to conduct the task.
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The first lecture in psychology that I ever heard was the first I ever gave.
William James
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I am, myself, a very poor visualizer and find that I can seldom call to mind even a single letter of the alphabet in purely retinal terms. I must trace the letter by running my mental eye over its contour in order that the image of it shall leave any distinctness at all.
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The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact.
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Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.
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The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
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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.
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Language is the most imperfect and expensive means yet discovered for communicating thought.
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Science as such assuredly has no authority, for she can only say what is, not what is not.
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It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.
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If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door.
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Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain.
William James
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There can be no difference anywhere that does not make a difference somewhere.
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Positive images of the future are a powerful and magnetic force... They draw us on and energize us, give us courage and will to take on important initiatives. Negative images of the future also have a magnetism. They pull the spirit downward in the path of despair.
William James
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Far from being antecedent principles that animate the process, law, language, truth are but abstract names for its results.
William James
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The worst thing that can happen to a good teacher is to get a bad conscience about her profession because she feels herself hopeless as a psychologist.
William James