Quote

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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William James
Age: 68 †
Born: 1842
Born: January 11
Died: 1910
Died: August 26
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
W. James
Interesting
Object
Moment
Connected
Moments
Fortune
Self
Objects
Thing
Personal
Forthwith
Men
Becomes
Fortunes
Philosophy
Accordingly
Literature
Educational

More quotes by William James

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Psychology saves us from mistakes. It makes us more clear as to what we are about. We gain confidence in respect to any method which we are using as soon as we believe that it has theory as well as practice at its back.
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What holds attention determines action.
William James
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How can the moribund old man reason back to himself the romance, the mystery, the imminence of great things with which our old earth tingled for him in the days when he was young and well?
William James
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The function of ignoring, of inattention, is as vital a factor in mental progress as the function of attention itself.
William James
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There is a stream, a succession of states, or waves, or fields (or whatever you please to call them), of knowledge, of feeling, of desire, of deliberation, etc., that constantly pass and repass, and that constitute our inner life.
William James
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Between what a man calls me and what he simply calls mine the line is difficult to draw. We feel and act about certain things that are ours very much as we feel and act about ourselves.
William James
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To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.
William James
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Agisci come se quel che fai, facesse la differenza. La fa!
William James
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Deepest principle of human nature is to be appreciated.
William James
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To spend life for something which outlasts it.
William James
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A Beethoven string-quartet is truly, as some one has said, a scraping of horses' tails on cats' bowels, and may be exhaustively described in such terms but the application of this description in no way precludes the simultaneous applicability of an entirely different description.
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The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
William James
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If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.
William James
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The education of attention would be an education par excellence
William James
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The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal.
William James
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Every way of classifying a thing is but a way of handling it for some particular purpose.
William James
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When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion, action will.
William James
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The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
William James
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Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark.
William James
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Human beings are born into this little span of life of which the best thing is its friendships and intimacies … and yet they leave their friendships and intimacies with no cultivation, to grow as they will by the roadside, expecting them to keep by force of mere inertia.
William James