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What the whole community comes to believe in grasps the individual as in a vise.

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
Individual
Comes
Whole
Believe
Vise
Grasps
Belief
Community

More quotes by William James

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Invention, using the term most broadly, and imitation, are the two legs, so to call them, on which the human race historically has walked.
William James
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The difference between objective and subjective extension is one of relation to a context solely.
William James
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One hears of the mechanical equivalent of heat. What we now need to discover in the social realm is the moral equivalent of war: something heroic that will speak to men as universally as war does, and yet will be as compatible with their spiritual selves as war has proved itself to be incompatible.
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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Good-humor is a philosophic state of mind it seems to say to Nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us. I maintain that one should always talk of philosophy with a smile.
William James
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Agisci come se quel che fai, facesse la differenza. La fa!
William James
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The good we do today becomes the happiness of tomorrow.
William James
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You do not sing because you're happy, you're happy because you sing.
William James
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... I am the same personal being who in old times upon the Earth had those experiences.
William James
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New habits can be launched.
William James
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Genius is the capacity for seeing relationships where lesser men see none.
William James
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We all have a lifelong habit of inferiority to our full self...
William James
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Science must constantly be reminded that her purposes are not the only purposes and that the order of uniform causation which she has use for, and is therefore right in postulating, may be enveloped in a wider order, on which she has no claim at all.
William James
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We are thinking beings, and we cannot exclude the intellect from participating in any of our functions.
William James
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To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.
William James
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Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second.
William James
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With mere good intentions hell is proverbially paved.
William James
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The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have been flown for religious ideals.
William James
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Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.
William James
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The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.
William James