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Man is essentially the imitative animal. His whole educabilityand in fact the whole history of civilization depend on this trait, which his strong tendencies to rivalry, jealousy, and acquisitiveness reinforce.

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
Strong
Depend
Facts
Essentially
Acquisitiveness
Whole
Tendencies
Imitative
Men
Civilization
Reinforce
Depends
Rivalry
Animal
Trait
Fact
Jealousy
History
Traits

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Most men's friendships are too inarticulate.
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A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed.
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Mankind's common instinct for reality has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism.
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A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.
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Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.
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In its broadest term, religion says that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in rightful relations to it.
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Real servants don't try to use God for their purposes. They let God use them for His purposes.
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A man with no philosophy in him is the most inauspicious and unprofitable of all possible social mates.
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Religious awe is the same organic thrill which we feel in a forest at twilight, or in a mountain gorge.
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Tension is a habit. Relaxing is a habit. Bad habits can be broken, good habits formed.
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Life shall be built in doing and suffering and creating.
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I wished by treating Psychology like a natural science, to help her become one.
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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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Where quality is the thing sought after, the thing of supreme quality is cheap, whatever the price one has to pay for it.
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If things are ever to move upward, some one must take the first step, and assume the risk of it. No one who is not willing to try charity, to try non-resistance as the saint is always willing, can tell whether these methods will or will not succeed.
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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.
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Serious development of the personality begins at the closet door.
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There can be no existence of evil as a force to the healthy-minded individual.
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It is only the fundamental conceptions of psychology which are of real value to a teacher.
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How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young-or slender.
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