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There is but one indefectibly certain truth , and that is the truth that pyrrhonistic scepticism itself leaves standing, the truth that the present phenomenon of consciousness exists.

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
Exists
Standing
Consciousness
Present
Truth
Certain
Scepticism
Phenomenon
Leaves

More quotes by William James

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It would probably astound each of them beyond measure to be let into his neighbor's mind and to find how different the scenery there was from that in his own.
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To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.
William James
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To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them ratified.
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We forget that every good that is worth possessing must be paid for in strokes of daily effort. We postpone and postpone until those smiling possibilities are dead... By neglecting the necessary concrete labor, by sparing ourselves the little daily tax, we are positively digging the graves of our higher possibilities.
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If theological ideas prove to have a value for concrete life, they will be true, for pragmatism, in the sense of being good for so much. How much more they are true, will depend entirely on their relations to the other truths that also have to be acknowledged.
William James
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The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.
William James
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To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.
William James
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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.
William James
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We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing.
William James
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Divinity lies all around us, but society remains too hidebound to accept that fact...The mother sea and the fountain-head of all religions lies in the mystical experiences of the individual.
William James
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A remarkable parallel, which I think has never been noticed, obtains between the facts of social evolution on the one hand, and of zological evolution as expounded by Mr. Darwin on the other.
William James
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If you can change your mind, you can change your life.
William James
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We want all our friends to tell us our bad qualities it is only the particular ass that does so whom we can't tolerate.
William James
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There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough.
William James
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Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.
William James
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... no bell in us tolls to let us know for certain when truth is in our grasp.
William James
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I will act as if I do make a difference.
William James
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The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.
William James
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There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness.
William James
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All the qualities of a man acquire dignity when he knows that the service of the collectivity that owns him needs them. If proud of the collectivity, his own pride rises in proportion. No collectivity is like an army for nourishing such pride.
William James