Quote

The more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike, or tremble because we are sorry, angry, or fearful as the case may be.

William James

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William James
Age: 68 †
Born: 1842
Born: January 11
Died: 1910
Died: August 26
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
W. James
Case
Fearful
Afraid
Statement
Cases
Statements
May
Strikes
Feel
Rational
Feels
Cry
Tremble
Sorry
Apology
Angry
Strike

More quotes by William James

Image
Events are influenced by our very great desires.
William James
Image
Touch is the alpha and omega of affection.
William James
Image
We believe as much as we can. We would believe everything if we could.
William James
Image
But facts are facts, and if we only get enough of them theyare sure to combine.
William James
Image
Men's activities are occupied into ways -- in grappling with external circumstances and in striving to set things at one in their own topsy-turvy mind.
William James
Image
The sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. If such conduct does not make you soon feel cheerful, nothing else on that occasion can.
William James
Image
Individuality is founded in feeling and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done.
William James
Image
Man is essentially the imitative animal. His whole educabilityand in fact the whole history of civilization depend on this trait, which his strong tendencies to rivalry, jealousy, and acquisitiveness reinforce.
William James
Image
Despair lames most people, but it wakes others fully up.
William James
Image
Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.
William James
Image
To spend life for something which outlasts it.
William James
Image
We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone.
William James
Image
If you give appreciation to people, you win their goodwill.
William James
Image
It is as important to cultivate your silence power as your word power.
William James
Image
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
Image
Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.
William James
Image
To consider hypotheses is surely always better than to dogmatize ins blaue hinein
William James
Image
Experience, as we know, has a way of boiling over, and making us correct our present formulas.
William James
Image
The greatest discovery of the 20th Century is that our attitude of mind determines our quality of life, not circumstances.
William James
Image
Divinity lies all around us, but society remains too hidebound to accept that fact...The mother sea and the fountain-head of all religions lies in the mystical experiences of the individual.
William James