Quote

Selection is the very keel on which our mental ship is built. And in this case of memory its utility is obvious. If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing.

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
Nothing
Mental
Keel
Obvious
Utility
Memory
Selection
Case
Ship
Built
Ships
Cases
Ill
Memories
Occasions
Everything
Remembered

More quotes by William James

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The good or bad is not in the circumstance, but only in the mind...that encounters it.
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In business for yourself, not by yourself.
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Man is essentially the imitative animal. His whole educabilityand in fact the whole history of civilization depend on this trait, which his strong tendencies to rivalry, jealousy, and acquisitiveness reinforce.
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An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.
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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.
William James
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Let sanguine healthy-mindedness do its best with its strange power of living in the moment and ignoring and forgetting, still the evil background is really there to be thought of, and the skull will grin in at the banquet.
William James
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A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
William James
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If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
William James
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Religious awe is the same organic thrill which we feel in a forest at twilight, or in a mountain gorge.
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The one who thinks over his experiences most, and weaves them into systematic relations with each other, will be the one with the best memory.
William James
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There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.
William James
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Divinity lies all around us, but society remains too hidebound to accept that fact...The mother sea and the fountain-head of all religions lies in the mystical experiences of the individual.
William James
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All natural happiness thus seems infected with a contradiction. The breath of the sepulchre surrounds it.
William James
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Deepest principle of human nature is to be appreciated.
William James
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Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. which give happiness. Thomas Jefferson We never enjoy perfect happiness our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.
William James
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Millions of items in the outward order are present to my senses which never properly enter into my experience. Why? Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind --without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos.
William James
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The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.
William James
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The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.
William James
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Man lives in only one small room of the enormous house of his consciousness.
William James
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Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
William James