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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
States
Theology
May
Psychology
Unity
Soul
Principle
Needs
Exist
Substantial
Work
Prove
Superfluous
Consciousness
Metaphysics
Principles
Hypothesis

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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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It is not probable that the reader will be satisfied with any of these solutions, and contemporary philosophers, even rationalistically minded ones, have on the whole agreed that no one has intelligibly banished the mystery of fact.
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Tension is a habit. Relaxing is a habit. Bad habits can be broken, good habits formed.
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The perfection of rottenness.
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True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those that we cannot
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No reception without reaction, no impression without correlative expression, -this is the great maxim which the teacher ought never to forget.
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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.
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Every way of classifying a thing is but a way of handling it for some particular purpose.
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Since you make evil or good by your own thoughts, it is your ruling of your thoughts which proves to be your principal concern.
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So it is with children who learn to read fluently and well: They begin to take flight into whole new worlds as effortlessly as young birds take to the sky.
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Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make very small use of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.
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No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.
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Once a decision is reached, stop worrying and start working.
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The difference between an interesting and a tedious teacher consists in little more than the inventiveness by which the one is able to mediate these associations and connections, and in the dullness in discovering such transitions which the other shows.
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Once you accept an idea, it's an idea whose time has come.
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Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture.
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