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Man alone of all the creatures of earth can change his own pattern. Man alone is the architect of his own destiny.

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
Change
Earth
Architect
Men
Pattern
Patterns
Destiny
Creatures
Tree
Alone

More quotes by William James

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Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain.
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If this life is not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight.
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We are mere bundles of habits.
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Our theories are wedged and controlled as nothing else is. Yet sometimes alternative theoretic formulas are equally compatible with all the truths we know, and then we choose between them for subjective reasons. We choose the kind of theory to which we are already partial: we follow 'elegenace' or 'economy'
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Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us our hour of triumph is what brings the void.
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A paradise of inward tranquility seems to be faith's usual result.
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It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.
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Every way of classifying a thing is but a way of handling it for some particular purpose.
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No reception without reaction, no impression without correlative expression, -this is the great maxim which the teacher ought never to forget.
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The perfect stillness of the night was thrilled by a more solemn silence. The darkness held a presence that was all the more felt because it was not seen. I could not any more have doubted that HE was there than that I was. Indeed, I felt myself to be, if possible, the less real of the two.
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Let anyone try, I will not say to arrest, but to notice or to attend to, the present moment of time. One of the most baffling experiences occurs. Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming.
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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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An experience, perceptual or conceptual, must conform to reality in order to be true
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Instinct leads, logic does but follow.
William James
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Life shall be built in doing and suffering and creating.
William James
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From all these facts there emerges a very simple abstract program for the teacher to follow in keeping the attention of the child: Begin with the line of his native interests, and offer him objects that have some immediate connection with these.
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It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
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The 'I think' which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the 'I breathe' which actually does accompany them.
William James
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It is as important to cultivate your silence power as your word power.
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All religions begin with the cry Help.
William James