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The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action.

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
Reason
Emotions
Always
Subject
Aren
Subjects
Emotional
Emotion
Action
Feelings
Immediately

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Volition . . . takes place only when there are a number of conflicting systems of ideas, and depends on our having a complex field of consciousness.
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As the brain-changes are continuous, so do all these consciousnesses melt into each other like dissolving views. Properly they are but one protracted consciousness, one unbroken stream.
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If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
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If evolution and the survival of the fittest be true at all, the destruction of prey and of human rivals must have been among the most important. . . . It is just because human bloodthirstiness is such a primitive part of us that it is so hard to eradicate, especially when a fight or a hunt is promised as part of the fun.
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The self-same atoms which, chaotically dispersed, made the nebula, now, jammed and temporarily caught in peculiar positions, form our brains and the 'evolution' of brains, if understood, would be simply the account of how the atoms came to be so caught and jammed.
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Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture.
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Genius... means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
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We are stereotyped creatures, imitators and copiers of our past selves.
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Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits.
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Materialism means simply the denial that the moral order is eternal, and the cutting off of ultimate hopes spiritualism means theaffirmation of an eternal moral order and the letting loose of hope.
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Man lives in only one small room of the enormous house of his consciousness.
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All of our life is but a mass of small habits - practical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual - that bear us irresistibly toward our destiny.
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If you can change your mind, you can change your life.
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If an unusual necessity forces us onward, a surprising thing occurs. The fatigue gets worse up to a certain point, when, gradually or suddenly, it passes away and we are fresher than before!
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How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young-or slender.
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Anything you may hold firmly in your imagination can be yours.
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A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
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One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling.
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Man's chief difference from the brutes lies in the exuberant excess of his subjective propensities. Prune his extravagance, sober him, and you undo him.
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He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.
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