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Man, whatever else he may be, is primarily a practical being, whose mind is given him to aid in adapting him to this world's life

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
Life
Philosophy
World
Literature
Adapting
Whatever
Primarily
Given
Practicals
Else
Practical
May
Aids
Mind
Educational
Men
Whose

More quotes by William James

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We want all our friends to tell us our bad qualities it is only the particular ass that does so whom we can't tolerate.
William James
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Both thought and feeling are determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or by thought.
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The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action.
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To suggest personal will and effort to one all sicklied o'er with the sense of irremediable impotence is to suggest the most impossible of things. What he craves is to be consoled in his very powerlessness, to feel that the spirit of the universe recognizes and secures him, all decaying and failing as he is.
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If you want to change your life, do it flamboyantly and start immediately.
William James
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True ideas lead us into useful verbal and conceptual quarters as well as directly up to useful sensible termini. They lead to consistency, stability and flowing human intercourse.
William James
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The power to move the world is in the subconcious mind
William James
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I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.
William James
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An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing: There is very little difference between one man and another but what little there is, is very important. This distinction seems to me to go to the root of the matter.
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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We are not only gregarious animals, liking to be in sight of our fellows, but we have an innate propensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favorably, by our kind.
William James
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There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.
William James
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To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.
William James
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A sense of humor is just common sense dancing.
William James
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There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness.
William James
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You can't out-perform your self-image.
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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Science can tell us what exists but to compare the worths, both of what exists and of what does not exist, we must consult not science, but what Pascal calls our heart.
William James
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The work that leads to a doctor's degree is a constant temptation to sacrifice one's growth as a man to one's growth as a specialist.
William James
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Footnotes -- little dogs yapping at the heels of the text
William James