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A sense of humor is just common sense dancing.

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
Sense
House
Dancer
Dancing
Dance
Humor
Common

More quotes by William James

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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.
William James
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Effort is a measure of a Man.
William James
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A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed.
William James
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An educated memory depends on an organized system of associations and its goodness depends on two of their peculiarities: first, on the persistency of the associations and, second, on their number.
William James
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Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world.
William James
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There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and said his say.
William James
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We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.
William James
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The most natively interesting object to a man is his own personal self and its fortunes. We accordingly see that the moment a thing becomes connected with the fortunes of the self, it forthwith becomes an interesting thing.
William James
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But petitional prayer is only one department of prayer and if we take the word in the wider sense as meaning every kind of inward communion or conversation with the power recognized as divine, we can easily see that scientific criticism leaves it untouched. Prayer in this wide sense is the very soul and essence of religion.
William James
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Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.
William James
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Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.
William James
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You must bring out of each word its practical cash-value, set it at work within the stream of your experience.
William James
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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.
William James
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Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.
William James
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Pluralism lets things really exist in the each-form or distributively. Monism thinks that the all-form or collective-unit form is the only form that is rational.
William James
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Asceticism may be a mere expression of organic hardihood, disgusted with too much ease.
William James
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If things are ever to move upward, some one must take the first step, and assume the risk of it. No one who is not willing to try charity, to try non-resistance as the saint is always willing, can tell whether these methods will or will not succeed.
William James
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The God of many men is little more than their court of appeal against the damnatory judgment passed on their failures by the opinion of the world.
William James
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Lives based on having are less free than lives based either on doing or being.
William James
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The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires.
William James