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All religions begin with the cry Help.

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
Help
Religion
Helping
Religions
Cry
Begin

More quotes by William James

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Give up the feeling of responsibility, let go your hold, resign the care of your destiny to higher powers, be genuinely indifferent as to what becomes of it all and you will find not only that you gain a perfect inward relief, but often also, in addition, the particular goods you sincerely thought you were renouncing.
William James
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It is so human a book that I don't see how belief in its divine authority can survive the reading of it.
William James
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We divert our attention from disease and death as much as we can the slaughterhouses are huddled out of sight and never mentioned, so that the world we recognize officially in literature and in society is a poetic fiction far handsomer, cleaner and better than the world that really is.
William James
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Most unhappiness is caused because people listen to themselves... instead of talking to themselves.
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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Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
William James
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Far from being antecedent principles that animate the process, law, language, truth are but abstract names for its results.
William James
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We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can. . . . The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work.
William James
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The mind, in short, works on the data it receives very much as a sculptor works on his block of stone. In a sense the statue stoodthere from eternity. But there were a thousand different ones beside it, and the sculptor alone is to thank for having extricated this one from the rest.
William James
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Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.
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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You can't out-perform your self-image.
William James
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Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.
William James
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When a thing is new, people say: ‘It is not true.’ Later, when its truth becomes obvious, they say: ‘It is not important.’ Finally, when its importance cannot be denied, they say: ‘Anyway, it is not new.
William James
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Our ideas must agree with realities, be such realities concrete or abstract
William James
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Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark.
William James
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Choose a self and stand by it.
William James
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Divinity lies all around us, but society remains too hidebound to accept that fact...The mother sea and the fountain-head of all religions lies in the mystical experiences of the individual.
William James
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The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly.
William James
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As Charles Lamb says, there is nothing so nice as doing good by stealth and being found out by accident, so I now say it is even nicer to make heroic decisions and to be prevented by 'circumstances beyond your control' from ever trying to execute them.
William James