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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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William James
Age: 68 †
Born: 1842
Born: January 11
Died: 1910
Died: August 26
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
W. James
Physically
Circles
Potential
Whether
Sith
Live
Restricted
People
Intellectually
Morally
Circle

More quotes by William James

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The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.
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To leap across an abyss, one is better served by faith than doubt.
William James
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There is but one indefectibly certain truth , and that is the truth that pyrrhonistic scepticism itself leaves standing, the truth that the present phenomenon of consciousness exists.
William James
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We all have a lifelong habit of inferiority to our full self...
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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.
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There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.
William James
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The exercise of prayer, in those who habitually exert it, must be regarded by us doctors as the most adequate and normal of all the pacifiers of the mind and calmers of the nerves.
William James
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I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.
William James
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Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system
William James
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The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action.
William James
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Do every day or two something for no other reason than its difficulty.
William James
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Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves ... But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom.
William James
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Circumstance does not make me, it reveals me.
William James
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We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone.
William James
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In order to disprove the assertion that all crows are black, one white crow is sufficient.
William James
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We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.
William James
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Our view of the world is truly shaped by what we decide to hear.
William James
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Better risk loss of truth than chance of error--that is your faith-vetoer's exact position. He is actively playing his stake as much as the believer is he is backing the field against the religious hypothesis, just as the believer is backing the religious hypothesis against the field.
William James
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Intelligence is a fixed goal with variable means of achieving it.
William James
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Geniuses are commonly believed to excel other men in their power of sustained attention . . . But it is their genius making them attentive, not their attention making geniuses of them.
William James