Quote

But it is the bane of psychology to suppose that where results are similar, processes must be the same. Psychologists are too apt to reason as geometers would, if the latter were to say that the diameter of a circle is the same thing as its semi-circumference, because, forsooth, they terminate in the same two points.

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
Two
Similar
Terminate
Reason
Points
Circumference
Must
Latter
Psychologists
Thing
Circles
Bane
Would
Psychology
Semi
Suppose
Psychologist
Results
Processes
Forsooth
Process
Circle
Diameter

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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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Most people, probably, are in doubt about certain matters ascribed to their past. They may have seen them, may have said them, done them, or they may only have dreamed or imagined they did so.
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The bottom of being is left logically opaque to us, a datum in the strict sense of the word, something we simply come upon and find, and about which (if we wish to act) we should pause and wonder as little as possible. In this confession lies the lasting truth of empiricism.
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If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.
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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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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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Let anyone try, I will not say to arrest, but to notice or to attend to, the present moment of time. One of the most baffling experiences occurs. Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming.
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Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.
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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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Habit is a second nature, or rather, it is 'ten times nature'.
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An idea will infect another with its own emotional interest when they have become both associated together into any sort of a mental total.
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So our self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do.
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There is but one unconditional commandment ... to bring about the very largest total universe of good which we can see.
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We are proud of a human nature that could be so passionately extreme, but we shrink from advising others to follow the example.
William James
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Impulse without reason is enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift.
William James
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Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.
William James
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The absolute things, the last things, the overlapping things, are the truly philosophic concerns all superior minds feel seriously about them, and the mind with the shortest views is simply the mind of the more shallow man.
William James
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To consider hypotheses is surely always better than to dogmatize ins blaue hinein
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If there is aught of good in the style, it is the result of ceaseless toil in rewriting. Everything comes out wrong with me at first but when once objectified in a crude shape, I can torture and poke and scrape and pat it till it offends me no more.
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Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions. Intellect, will, taste, and passion co-operate just as they do in practical affairs and lucky it is if the passion be not something as petty as a love of personal conquest over the philosopher across the way.
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