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Whilst part of what we perceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part (and it may be the larger part) always comes out of our own mind.

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
Another
Part
Whilst
May
Larger
Mind
Perceive
Always
Senses
Object
Objects
Comes

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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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I originally studied medicine in order to be a physiologist, but I drifted into psychology and philosophy from a sort of fatality. I never had any philosophic instruction, the first lecture on psychology I ever heard being the first I ever gave.
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There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood bu those who hear it.
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The question of free will is insoluble on strictly psychological grounds.
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The states of consciousness are all that psychology needs to do her work with. Metaphysics or theology may prove the Soul to exist but for psychology the hypothesis of such a substantial principle of unity is superfluous.
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True to her inveterate habit, rationalism reverts to 'principles,' and thinks that when an abstraction once is named, we own an oracular solution.
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This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.
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There must always be a discrepncy between concepts and reality, because the former are static and discontinuous while the latter is dynamic and flowing
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Once a decision is reached, stop worrying and start working.
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Psychology ought certainly to give the teacher radical help.
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Man lives in only one small room of the enormous house of his consciousness.
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The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal.
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... if we take the universe of 'fitting,' countless coats 'fit' backs, and countless boots 'fit' feet, on which they are not practically fitted countless stones 'fit' gaps in walls into which no one seeks to fit them actually. In the same way countless opinions 'fit' realities, and countless truths are valid, tho no thinker ever thinks them.
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Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture.
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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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Men are now proud of belonging to a conquering nation, and without a murmur they lay down their persons and their wealth, if by so doing they may fend off subjection.
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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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Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
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Far from being antecedent principles that animate the process, law, language, truth are but abstract names for its results.
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