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First... a new theory is attacked as absurd then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.

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
True
Discovered
Firsts
Claims
First
Finally
Admitted
Important
Obvious
Adversaries
Discovery
Attacked
Theory
Insignificant
Seen
Claim
Science
Absurd

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We have nothing to do but to receive, resting absolutely upon the merit, power, and love of our Redeemer.
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You must bring out of each word its practical cash-value, set it at work within the stream of your experience.
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[Religion is] the attempt to be in harmony with an unseen order of things.
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The teacher's prime concern should be to ingrain into the pupil that assortment of habits that shall be most useful to him throughout life. Education is for behavior, and habits are the stuff of which behavior consists.
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The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
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The instinct of ownership is fundamental in man's nature.
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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!.
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It is as important to cultivate your silence power as your word power.
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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?
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Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark.
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Give up the feeling of responsibility, let go your hold, resign the care of your destiny to higher powers, be genuinely indifferent as to what becomes of it all and you will find not only that you gain a perfect inward relief, but often also, in addition, the particular goods you sincerely thought you were renouncing.
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That which is most personal, is most interesting.
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Asceticism may be a mere expression of organic hardihood, disgusted with too much ease.
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Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive.
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The mind, in short, works on the data it receives very much as a sculptor works on his block of stone. In a sense the statue stoodthere from eternity. But there were a thousand different ones beside it, and the sculptor alone is to thank for having extricated this one from the rest.
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Once you accept an idea, it's an idea whose time has come.
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There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and said his say.
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To know one thing thoroughly would be to know the universe.
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The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action.
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In all primary school work the principle of multiple impressions is well recognized.
William James