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Ninety-nine hundredths or, possibly, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of our activity is purely automatic and habitual, from our rising in the morning to our lying down each night.

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
Hundred
Habitual
Morning
Purely
Lying
Ninety
Night
Possibly
Rising
Nine
Activity
Habit
Automatic

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Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. Not through mere perversity do men run after it.
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It is very important that teachers should realize the importance of habit.
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To some of us the thought of God is like a sort of quiet music playing in the background of the mind.
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The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.
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An experience, perceptual or conceptual, must conform to reality in order to be true
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No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.
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We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone.
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To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else's type of thinking.
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The desire to gain wealth and the fear to lose it are our chief breeders of cowardice and propagators of corruption.
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The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.
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In all primary school work the principle of multiple impressions is well recognized.
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That which is most personal, is most interesting.
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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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There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker if sad, it must not scream or curse.
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There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and said his say.
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Both thought and feeling are determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or by thought.
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To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.
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Truth in our ideas means their power to work.
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The work that leads to a doctor's degree is a constant temptation to sacrifice one's growth as a man to one's growth as a specialist.
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