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

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Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
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Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity.
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To leap across an abyss, one is better served by faith than doubt.
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From the Vedas we learn a practical art of surgery, medicine, music, house building under which mechanized art is included. They are encyclopedia of every aspect of life, culture, religion, science, ethics, law, cosmology and meteorology.
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Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. Not through mere perversity do men run after it.
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When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.
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It would probably astound each of them beyond measure to be let into his neighbor's mind and to find how different the scenery there was from that in his own.
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Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being.
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I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are IMPOSSIBLE.
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All religions begin with the cry Help.
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Circumstance does not make me, it reveals me.
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The difference between objective and subjective extension is one of relation to a context solely.
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Organization and method mean much, but contagious human characters mean more in a university.
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Psychology is a science, and teaching is an art and sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves.
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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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... the intellect, everywhere invasive, shows everywhere its shallowing effect.
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Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions.
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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.
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So to feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end...and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear.
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Cramming seeks to stamp things in by intense application immediately before the ordeal. But a thing thus learned can form but few associations.
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