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The mind is made up by what it feeds upon.

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
Feeds
Upon
Made
Mind
Thinking

More quotes by William James

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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.
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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Footnotes -- little dogs yapping at the heels of the text
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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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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... the intellect, everywhere invasive, shows everywhere its shallowing effect.
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.
William James
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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.
William James
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Our volitional habits depend, then, first, on what the stock of ideas is which we have and, second, on the habitual coupling of the several ideas with action or inaction respectively.
William James
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Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.
William James
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To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else's type of thinking.
William James
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If any one phrase could gather its (religion's) universal message, that phrase would be, - All is not vanity in this Universe, whatever the appearances may suggest.
William James
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We must be careful not to confuse data with the abstractions we use to analyse them.
William James
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Procrastination is attitude's natural assassin. There's nothing so fatiguing as an uncompleted task
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 do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing.
William James
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Life is one long struggle between conclusions based on abstract ways of conceiving cases, and opposite conclusions prompted by our instinctive perception of them.
William James
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Give your dreams all you've got, and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.
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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Marvelous as may be the power of my dog to understand my moods, deathless as his affection and fidelity, his mental state is as unsolved a mystery to me as it was to my remotest ancestor.
William James