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Each of us is in fact what he is almost exclusively by virtue of his imitative-ness.

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
Imitative
Ness
Exclusively
Virtue
Almost
Fact
Facts

More quotes by William James

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He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.
William James
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The greatest weapon we have to combat stress is the ability to choose our thoughts.
William James
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Science as such assuredly has no authority, for she can only say what is, not what is not.
William James
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The first lecture in psychology that I ever heard was the first I ever gave.
William James
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Our volitional habits depend, then, first, on what the stock of ideas is which we have and, second, on the habitual coupling of the several ideas with action or inaction respectively.
William James
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The war-function has grasped us so far but the constructive interests may some day seem no less imperative, and impose on the individual a hardly lighter burden.
William James
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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.
William James
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Serious development of the personality begins at the closet door.
William James
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We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. ...Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out.
William James
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You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.
William James
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If it works, it's true.
William James
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We with our lives are like islands in the sea... The islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom.
William James
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I will act as if I do make a difference.
William James
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But facts are facts, and if we only get enough of them theyare sure to combine.
William James
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Our beliefs are really rules for action.
William James
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An enormous mass of experience, both of homeopathic doctors and their patients, is invoked in favor of the efficacy of these remedies and doses.
William James
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Strength is a facade for the proud, weakness is a mask for the lazy.
William James
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It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.
William James
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Materialism means simply the denial that the moral order is eternal, and the cutting off of ultimate hopes spiritualism means theaffirmation of an eternal moral order and the letting loose of hope.
William James
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Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up a single slip undoes more than a great many turns will wind again.
William James