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It is as important to cultivate your silence power as your word power.

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
Word
Power
Important
Cultivate
Silence

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Everything which is demanded is by that fact a good.
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[Pragmatism's] only test of probable truth is what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life best and combines with the collectivity of experience's demands, nothing being omitted.
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Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.
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Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.
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The function of ignoring, of inattention, is as vital a factor in mental progress as the function of attention itself.
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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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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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To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.
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In my individual heart I fully believe my faith is as robust as yours. The trouble with your robust and full bodied faiths, however, is, that they begin to cut each others throats too soon, and for getting on in the world and establishing a modus vivendi these pestilential refinements and reasonablenesses and moderations have to creep in.
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Truths emerge from facts, but they dip forward into facts again and add to them which facts again create or reveal new truth (the word is indifferent) and so on indefinitely. The 'facts' themselves meanwhile are not true. They simply are. Truth is the function of the beliefs that start and terminate among them.
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From a pragmatic point of view, the difference between living against a background of foreigness (an indifferent Universe) and one of intimacy (a benevolent Universe) means the difference between a general habit of wariness and one of trust.
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In order to disprove the assertion that all crows are black, one white crow is sufficient.
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There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.
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The teachers of this country, one may say, have its future in their hands.
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It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
William James
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Once a decision is reached, stop worrying and start working.
William James
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It is so human a book that I don't see how belief in its divine authority can survive the reading of it.
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I am only a philosopher, and there is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do, and that is, to contradict other philosophers.
William James
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It is your friends who make your world.
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Events are influenced by our very great desires.
William James