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Impulse without reason is enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift.

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
Makeshift
Impulse
Poor
Reason
Without
Enough

More quotes by William James

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From a pragmatic point of view, the difference between living against a background of foreigness (an indifferent Universe) and one of intimacy (a benevolent Universe) means the difference between a general habit of wariness and one of trust.
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It is as important to cultivate your silence power as your word power.
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The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact.
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Man lives for science as well as bread.
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The difference between the first and second-best things in art absolutely seems to escape verbal definition -- it is a matter of a hair, a shade, an inward quiver of some kind -- yet what miles away in the point of preciousness!
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Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling.
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The greatest discovery of the 20th Century is that our attitude of mind determines our quality of life, not circumstances.
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An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.
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The states of consciousness are all that psychology needs to do her work with. Metaphysics or theology may prove the Soul to exist but for psychology the hypothesis of such a substantial principle of unity is superfluous.
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The truth remains that, after adolescence has begun, words, words, words, must constitute a large part, and an always larger part as life advances, of what the human being has to learn.
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In all this process of acquiring conceptions, a certain instinctive order is followed. There is a native tendency to assimilate certain kinds of conception at one age, and other kinds of conception at a later age.
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There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness.
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Results should not be too voluntarily aimed at or too busily thought of. They are sure to float up of their own accord from a long enough daily work at a given matter.
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Once you accept an idea, it's an idea whose time has come.
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Truth for us is simply a collective name for verification processes
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Touch is the alpha and omega of affection.
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The most peculiar social self which one is apt to have is in the mind of the person one is in love with.
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A man of sense is never discouraged by difficulties he redoubles his industry and his diligence, he perseveres and infallibly prevails at last.
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An impression which simply flows in at the pupil's eyes or ears and in no way modifies his active life, is an impression gone to waste. It is physiologically incomplete... Its motor consequences are what clinch it.
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Most men's friendships are too inarticulate.
William James