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The instinct of ownership is fundamental in man's nature.

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
Instinct
Property
Economy
Wisdom
Rights
Ownership
Politics
Liberalism
Nature
Fundamental
Men
Fundamentals

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Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system
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Truth happens to an idea
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The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have been flown for religious ideals.
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Pessimism leads to weakness. Optimism leads to power.
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I wished by treating Psychology like a natural science, to help her become one.
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Man lives for science as well as bread.
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How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young-or slender.
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The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers.
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Circumstance does not make me, it reveals me.
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A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.
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Man lives by habits indeed, but what he lives for is thrill and excitements. ... From time immemorial war has been ... the supremely thrilling excitement.
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We don't laugh because we're happy - we're happy because we laugh.
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[Pragmatism's] only test of probable truth is what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life best and combines with the collectivity of experience's demands, nothing being omitted.
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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.
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You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.
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The 'I think' which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the 'I breathe' which actually does accompany them.
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...These healers...my intellect has been unable to assimilate their theories....But their facts are patent and startling and anything that interferes with the multiplication of such facts, and with our freest opportunity of observing and studying them, will, I believe, be a public calamity.
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As we take, in fact, a general view of the wonderful stream of our consciousness, what strikes us first is this different pace of its parts. Like a bird 's life, it seems to be made of an alternation of flights and perchings.
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It is only the fundamental conceptions of psychology which are of real value to a teacher.
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Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens outthe widest vistas. It 'bakes no bread', as has been said, but it can inspire our souls with courage.
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