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The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

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
Away
Stagnates
Without
Sympathy
Individuality
Impulse
Friendship
Dies
Community
Individual

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Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.
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Wisdom is learning what to overlook.
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The truth remains that, after adolescence has begun, words, words, words, must constitute a large part, and an always larger part as life advances, of what the human being has to learn.
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Science can tell us what exists but to compare the worths, both of what exists and of what does not exist, we must consult not science, but what Pascal calls our heart.
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If you can change your mind, you can change your life.
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The unrest which keeps the never stopping clock of metaphysics going is the thought that the nonexistence of this world is just as possible as its existence.
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New habits can be launched.
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Man can change his life simply by changing his attitude.
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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.
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The word 'cause' is an altar to an unknown god.
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Where quality is the thing sought after, the thing of supreme quality is cheap, whatever the price one has to pay for it.
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Better risk loss of truth than chance of error--that is your faith-vetoer's exact position. He is actively playing his stake as much as the believer is he is backing the field against the religious hypothesis, just as the believer is backing the religious hypothesis against the field.
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In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering.
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Lets take full advantage of this discovery
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To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one's being added to that being.
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The difference between the first and second-best things in art absolutely seems to escape verbal definition -- it is a matter of a hair, a shade, an inward quiver of some kind -- yet what miles away in the point of preciousness!
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I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds.
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This overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. In mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystical tradition, hardly altered by differences of clime or creed.
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The perfection of rottenness.
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I am well aware how odd it must seem to some of you to hear me say that an idea is true so long as to believe it is profitable to our lives
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