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We must be careful not to confuse data with the abstractions we use to analyse them.

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
Abstraction
Data
Careful
Powerful
Use
Science
Analyse
Must
Abstractions
Confuse

More quotes by William James

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Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. which give happiness. Thomas Jefferson We never enjoy perfect happiness our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.
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The one who thinks over his experiences most, and weaves them into systematic relations with each other, will be the one with the best memory.
William James
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Lives based on having are less free than lives based either on doing or being.
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For the moment, what we attend to is reality.
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A difference which makes no difference is no difference at all.
William James
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The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will... An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.
William James
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There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.
William James
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When you have broken the reality into concepts you never can reconstruct it in its wholeness.
William James
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The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.
William James
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The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
William James
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Belief creates the actual fact.
William James
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There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.
William James
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The deepest longing in the human breast is the desire for appreciation.
William James
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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.
William James
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Great indeed is Fear but it is not, as our military enthusiasts believe and try to make us believe, the only stimulus known for awakening the higher ranges of men's spiritual energy.
William James
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With mere good intentions hell is proverbially paved.
William James
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Men habitually use only a small part of the power which they actually possess.
William James
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The greatest empiricists among us are only empiricists on reflection: when left to their instincts, they dogmatize like infallible popes.
William James
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The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires.
William James
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The suspicion is in the air nowadays that the superiority of one of our formulas to another may not consist so much in its literal 'objectivity,' as in subjective qualities like its usefulness, its 'elegance,' or its congruity with our residual beliefs
William James