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As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

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
Theories
Rule
Theory
Belief
Use
Facts
Disbelieve

More quotes by William James

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So long as antimilitarists propose no substitute for war's disciplinary function, no moral equivalent of war, analogous, as one might say, to the mechanical equivalent of heat, so long they fail to realize the full inwardness of the situation.
William James
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Life shall be built in doing and suffering and creating.
William James
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The instant field of the present is at all times what I call the 'pure' experience. It is only virtually or potentially either object or subject as yet.
William James
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To spend life for something which outlasts it.
William James
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The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
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Philosophy is an unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly.
William James
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This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.
William James
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I will act as if I do make a difference.
William James
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One of the greatest discoveries of our time is that a man can alter the state of their life by altering the state of their mind.
William James
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Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being.
William James
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The absolute things, the last things, the overlapping things, are the truly philosophic concerns all superior minds feel seriously about them, and the mind with the shortest views is simply the mind of the more shallow man.
William James
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No one sees further into a generalization than his own knowledge of detail extends.
William James
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The baby, assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin, and entrails at once, feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion.
William James
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Only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.
William James
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So our self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do.
William James
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So to feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end...and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear.
William James
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When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.
William James
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Considering the inner fitness of things, one would rather think that the very first act of a will endowed with freedom should be to sustain the belief in the freedom itself.
William James
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Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.
William James
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In the last analysis, then, we believe that we all know and think about and talk about the same world because we believe our PERCEPTS are possessed by us in common
William James