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An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing: There is very little difference between one man and another but what little there is, is very important. This distinction seems to me to go to the root of the matter.

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
Differences
Unlearned
Another
Carpenter
Seems
Acquaintance
Littles
Root
Little
Distinction
Matter
Hearing
Important
Roots
Men
Difference

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Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us our hour of triumph is what brings the void. Not the Jews of the captivity, but those of the days of Solomon 's glory are those from whom the pessimistic utterances in our Bible come.
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If you want a confidence, act as if you already have it. Try the as if technique.
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The truth remains that, after adolescence has begun, words, words, words, must constitute a large part, and an always larger part as life advances, of what the human being has to learn.
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The most immutable barrier in nature is between one man's thoughts and another's.
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Evil is a disease and worry over disease is itself an additional form of disease, which only adds to the original complaint.
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We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone.
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If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you mustn't seek to show that no crows are it is enough if you prove one single crow to be white.
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Act in earnest and you will become earnest in all you do.
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Faith is synonymous with working hypothesis.
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A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.
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Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit.
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The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party.
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Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens outthe widest vistas. It 'bakes no bread', as has been said, but it can inspire our souls with courage.
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...By far the most usual way of handling phenomena so novel that they would make for a serious rearrangement of our preconceptions is to ignore them altogether, or to abuse those who bear witness for them.
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Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found?
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All natural happiness thus seems infected with a contradiction. The breath of the sepulchre surrounds it.
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Psychology saves us from mistakes. It makes us more clear as to what we are about. We gain confidence in respect to any method which we are using as soon as we believe that it has theory as well as practice at its back.
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A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.
William James