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The thinker philosophizes as the lover loves. Even were the consequences not only useless but harmful, he must obey his impulse.

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
Useless
Lovers
Consequence
Harmful
Loves
Obey
Must
Thinker
Even
Lover
Consequences
Impulse

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Science herself consults her heart when she lays it down that the infinite ascertainment of fact and correction of false belief are the supreme goods for man.
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My experience is what I agree to attend to.
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Mankind's common instinct for reality has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism.
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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.
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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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[Religion is] the attempt to be in harmony with an unseen order of things.
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Each of us is in fact what he is almost exclusively by virtue of his imitative-ness.
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Give your dreams all you've got, and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.
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The study a posteriori of the distribution of consciousness shows it to be exactly such as we might expect in an organ added for the sake of steering a nervous system grown too complex to regulate itself.
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If it works, it's true.
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In business for yourself, not by yourself.
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Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, 'This is the real me,' and when you have found that attitude, follow it.
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Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.
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To know an object is to lead to it through a context which the world provides
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Conversion is in its essence a normal adolescent phenomenon, incidental to the passage from the child's small universe to the wider intellectual and spiritual life of maturity.
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The love of life, at any and every level of development, is the religious impulse.
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We don't laugh because we're happy - we're happy because we laugh.
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If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you mustn't seek to show that no crows are it is enough if you prove one single crow to be white.
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We are stereotyped creatures, imitators and copiers of our past selves.
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The general law is that no mental modification ever occurs which is not accompanied or followed by a bodily change.
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