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The war-function has grasped us so far but the constructive interests may some day seem no less imperative, and impose on the individual a hardly lighter burden.

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
Less
Impose
Individual
Constructive
War
Hardly
Seems
Interests
Grasped
May
Burden
Lighters
Function
Lighter
Seem
Imperative
Interest
Imperatives

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An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.
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In its broadest term, religion says that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in rightful relations to it.
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The good we do today becomes the happiness of tomorrow.
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No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutely unnoticed.
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Tell him to live by yes and no - yes to everything good, no to everything bad.
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The worst thing that can happen to a good teacher is to get a bad conscience about her profession because she feels herself hopeless as a psychologist.
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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.
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The exercise of voluntary attention in the schoolroom must therefore be counted one of the most important points of training that take place there and the first-rate teacher, by the keenness of the remoter interests which he is able to awaken, will provide abundant opportunities for its occurrence.
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As the brain-changes are continuous, so do all these consciousnesses melt into each other like dissolving views. Properly they are but one protracted consciousness, one unbroken stream.
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True ideas lead us into useful verbal and conceptual quarters as well as directly up to useful sensible termini. They lead to consistency, stability and flowing human intercourse.
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In the dim background of our mind we know meanwhile what we ought to be doing: getting up, dressing ourselves, answering the person who has spoken to us, trying to make the next step in our reasoning. But somehow we cannot start.
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Modern man . . . has not ceased to be credulous . . . the need to believe haunts him.
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'Facts' are the bounds of human knowledge, set for it, not by it.
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Our beliefs and our attention are the same fact.
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If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.
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Organization and method mean much, but contagious human characters mean more in a university.
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Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.
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We hear the words we have spoken, feel our own blow as we give it, or read in the bystander's eyes the success or failure of our conduct.
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Why may we not be in the universe, as our dogs and cats are in our drawingrooms and libraries?
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Life feels like a real fight - as if there were something really wild in the universe which we, with all our idealities and faithfulnesses, are needed to redeem.
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