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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.

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
Power
Marvelous
States
Affection
May
Mood
Remotest
Mental
Unsolved
Dog
Deathless
Mystery
Moods
State
Fidelity
Understand
Ancestor

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We need only in cold blood to act as if the thing in question were real and it will infallibly end by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real.
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Lets take full advantage of this discovery
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Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.
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The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers.
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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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We are proud of a human nature that could be so passionately extreme, but we shrink from advising others to follow the example.
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The last peculiarity of consciousness to which attention is to be drawn in this first rough description of its stream is that it is always interested more in one part of its object than in another, and welcomes and rejects, or chooses, all the while it thinks.
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I am only a philosopher, and there is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do, and that is, to contradict other philosophers.
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I am well aware how odd it must seem to some of you to hear me say that an idea is true so long as to believe it is profitable to our lives
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Asceticism may be a mere expression of organic hardihood, disgusted with too much ease.
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If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
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Habit is a second nature, or rather, it is 'ten times nature'.
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In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering.
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When a thing is new, people say: ‘It is not true.’ Later, when its truth becomes obvious, they say: ‘It is not important.’ Finally, when its importance cannot be denied, they say: ‘Anyway, it is not new.
William James
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Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. Not through mere perversity do men run after it.
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All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience, factors to which the environment and the lessons it has so far taught us must learn to bend.
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To give the theory plenty of 'rope' and see if it hangs itself eventually is better tactics than to choke it off at the outset b abstract accusations of self-contradiction
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We have nothing to do but to receive, resting absolutely upon the merit, power, and love of our Redeemer.
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There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker if sad, it must not scream or curse.
William James
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Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.
William James