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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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William James
Age: 68 †
Born: 1842
Born: January 11
Died: 1910
Died: August 26
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
W. James
Prove
Superfluous
Consciousness
Metaphysics
Principles
Hypothesis
States
Theology
May
Psychology
Soul
Unity
Needs
Principle
Work
Exist
Substantial

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We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition
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Faith is one of the forces by which men live, and the total absence of it means collapse
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Pluralism lets things really exist in the each-form or distributively. Monism thinks that the all-form or collective-unit form is the only form that is rational.
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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.
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Good-humor is a philosophic state of mind it seems to say to Nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us. I maintain that one should always talk of philosophy with a smile.
William James
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Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind!
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Circumstance does not make me, it reveals me.
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.
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To consider hypotheses is surely always better than to dogmatize ins blaue hinein
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Wisdom is learning what to overlook.
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Agisci come se quel che fai, facesse la differenza. La fa!
William James
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Modern man . . . has not ceased to be credulous . . . the need to believe haunts him.
William James
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There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness.
William James
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Why may we not be in the universe, as our dogs and cats are in our drawingrooms and libraries?
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Truth in our ideas means their power to work.
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To kill time is not murder, it's suicide.
William James
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On pragmatistic principles, if the hypothesis of God works satisfactorily in the widest sense of the word, it is true.
William James
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Asceticism may be a mere expression of organic hardihood, disgusted with too much ease.
William James
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There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.
William James
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One of the greatest discoveries of our time is that a man can alter the state of their life by altering the state of their mind.
William James