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Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance.
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
Conservative
Wheel
Thus
Agent
Habit
Wheels
Alone
Agents
Within
Precious
Society
Bounds
Ordinance
Keeps
Ordinances
Enormous
Uprising
More quotes by William James
To kill time is not murder, it's suicide.
William James
Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
William James
An idea will infect another with its own emotional interest when they have become both associated together into any sort of a mental total.
William James
In my individual heart I fully believe my faith is as robust as yours. The trouble with your robust and full bodied faiths, however, is, that they begin to cut each others throats too soon, and for getting on in the world and establishing a modus vivendi these pestilential refinements and reasonablenesses and moderations have to creep in.
William James
The most any one can do is to confess as candidly as he can the grounds for the faith that is in him, and leave his example to work on others as it may.
William James
Faith is one of the forces by which men live, and the total absence of it means collapse
William James
There is but one unconditional commandment ... to bring about the very largest total universe of good which we can see.
William James
So our self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do.
William James
No living person is sunk so low as not to be imitated by somebody.
William James
The trail of the human serpent is thus over everything.
William James
Ingenuity in meeting and pursuing the pupil, that tact for the concrete situation, though they are the alpha and omega of the teacher's art, are things to which psychology cannot help us in the least.
William James
Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.
William James
He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.
William James
All religions begin with the cry Help.
William James
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.
William James
The bottom of being is left logically opaque to us, a datum in the strict sense of the word, something we simply come upon and find, and about which (if we wish to act) we should pause and wonder as little as possible. In this confession lies the lasting truth of empiricism.
William James
Let anyone try, I will not say to arrest, but to notice or to attend to, the present moment of time. One of the most baffling experiences occurs. Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming.
William James
Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.
William James
Fear of life in one form or another is the great thing to exorcise.
William James
We can act as if there were a God feel as if we were free consider Nature as if she were full of special designs lay plans as if we were to be immortal and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life.
William James
