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...By far the most usual way of handling phenomena so novel that they would make for a serious rearrangement of our preconceptions is to ignore them altogether, or to abuse those who bear witness for them.

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
Serious
Altogether
Science
Ignore
Way
Usual
Make
Witness
Would
Abuse
Rearrangement
Bear
Preconceptions
Bears
Handling
Novel
Phenomena

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To know an object is to lead to it through a context which the world provides
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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.
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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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The exercise of voluntary attention in the schoolroom must therefore be counted one of the most important points of training that take place there and the first-rate teacher, by the keenness of the remoter interests which he is able to awaken, will provide abundant opportunities for its occurrence.
William James
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True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those that we cannot. That is the practical difference it makes to us to have true ideas that therefore is the meaning of truth, for it is all that truth is known as.
William James
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Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.
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So far war has been the only force that can discipline a whole community, and until an equivalent discipline is organized, I believe that war must have its way.
William James
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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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The squalid cash interpretation put on the word success — is our national disease.
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Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.
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There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.
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Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
William James
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It is not probable that the reader will be satisfied with any of these solutions, and contemporary philosophers, even rationalistically minded ones, have on the whole agreed that no one has intelligibly banished the mystery of fact.
William James
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We can change our circumstances by a mere change of our attitude.
William James
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The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.
William James
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The first thing to learn in intercourse with others is non-interference with their own particular ways of being happy, provided those ways do not assume to interfere by violence with ours.
William James
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a man does not cry because he is sad, he is sad because he cries
William James
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Only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.
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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No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutely unnoticed.
William James