Quote

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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William James
Age: 68 †
Born: 1842
Born: January 11
Died: 1910
Died: August 26
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
W. James
Ends
Replace
Feel
Anticipation
Feels
Likely
Fit
Brave
Courage
Use
Fear

More quotes by William James

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Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits.
William James
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Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make very small use of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.
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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Science, like life, feeds on its own decay. New facts burst old rules then newly divined conceptions bind old and new together into a reconciling law.
William James
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Focus on increasing service. Becoming great where you are. Pile in the wood. The heat will follow.
William James
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Act the part and you will become the part.
William James
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When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome.
William James
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That which is most personal, is most interesting.
William James
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A great idea goes through three stages on its way to acceptance: 1) it is dismissed as nonsense, 2) it is acknowledged as true, but insignificant, 3) finally, it is seen to be important, but not really anything new.
William James
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An educated memory depends on an organized system of associations and its goodness depends on two of their peculiarities: first, on the persistency of the associations and, second, on their number.
William James
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Success plus Self-esteem equals Pretensions.
William James
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There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.
William James
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Don't preach too much to your pupils or abound in good talk in the abstract. Lie in wait rather for the practical opportunities, be prompt to seize those as they pass, and thus at one operation get your pupils both to think, to feel, and to do.
William James
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If evolution and the survival of the fittest be true at all, the destruction of prey and of human rivals must have been among the most important. . . . It is just because human bloodthirstiness is such a primitive part of us that it is so hard to eradicate, especially when a fight or a hunt is promised as part of the fun.
William James
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If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.
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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If you want a confidence, act as if you already have it. Try the as if technique.
William James
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a man does not cry because he is sad, he is sad because he cries
William James
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The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.
William James
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The whole drift of my education goes to persuade me that the world of our present consciousness is only one out of many worlds of consciousness that exist.
William James