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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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William James
Age: 68 †
Born: 1842
Born: January 11
Died: 1910
Died: August 26
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
W. James
Doe
Calls
Must
Compare
Heart
Accounts
Exists
Exist
Existence
Science
Pascal
Tell
Consult

More quotes by William James

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The soul is stronger than its surroundings.
William James
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The old question of whether there is design is idle. The real question is what is the world, whether or not it have a designer--and that can be revealed only by the study of all nature's particulars.
William James
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There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough.
William James
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The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.
William James
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As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
William James
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Any object not interesting in itself may become interesting through becoming associated with an object in which an interest already exists.
William James
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It is as if there were in the human consciousness a sense of reality, a feeling of objective presence, a perception of what we may call something there, more deep and more general than any of the special and particular senses by which the current psychology supposes existent realities to be originally revealed.
William James
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The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.
William James
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Modern man . . . has not ceased to be credulous . . . the need to believe haunts him.
William James
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It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
William James
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A remarkable parallel, which I think has never been noticed, obtains between the facts of social evolution on the one hand, and of zological evolution as expounded by Mr. Darwin on the other.
William James
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Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves ... But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom.
William James
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The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party.
William James
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Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions. Intellect, will, taste, and passion co-operate just as they do in practical affairs and lucky it is if the passion be not something as petty as a love of personal conquest over the philosopher across the way.
William James
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In order to disprove the assertion that all crows are black, one white crow is sufficient.
William James
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Lets take full advantage of this discovery
William James
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I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!.
William James
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Once you accept an idea, it's an idea whose time has come.
William James
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Strength is a facade for the proud, weakness is a mask for the lazy.
William James
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A new opinion counts as true just in proportion as it gratifies the individual's desire to assimilate the novel in his experience to his beliefs in stock
William James