Quote

The absolute things, the last things, the overlapping things, are the truly philosophic concerns all superior minds feel seriously about them, and the mind with the shortest views is simply the mind of the more shallow man.

William James

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William James
Age: 68 †
Born: 1842
Born: January 11
Died: 1910
Died: August 26
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
W. James
Men
Views
Superiors
Simply
Absolutes
Lasts
Absolute
Overlapping
Last
Philosophical
Shortest
Feel
Seriously
Philosophic
Feels
Concern
Concerns
Mind
Minds
Shallow
Things
Truly
Superior

More quotes by William James

Image
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
Image
Most men have a good memory for facts connected with their own pursuits.
William James
Image
Mankind's common instinct for reality has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism.
William James
Image
The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour.
William James
Image
It seems the natural thing for us to listen whilst the Europeans talk.
William James
Image
As a rule reading fiction is as hard to me as trying to hit a target by hurling feathers at it. I need resistance to celebrate!
William James
Image
Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor. It alone prevents the hardest and most repulsive walks of life from being deserted by those brought up to tread therein.
William James
Image
Invention, using the term most broadly, and imitation, are the two legs, so to call them, on which the human race historically has walked.
William James
Image
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
William James
Image
The baby, assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin, and entrails at once, feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion.
William James
Image
I am tired of the position of the dried-up critic and doubter. The believer is the true full man. (from a biography of James by Robert D. Richardson)
William James
Image
We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can...in the acquisition of a new habit, we must take car to launch ourselves with as strong and decided initiative as possible. Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life.
William James
Image
The function of ignoring, of inattention, is as vital a factor in mental progress as the function of attention itself.
William James
Image
Truth for us is simply a collective name for verification processes
William James
Image
The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.
William James
Image
The deepest hunger in human beings is the desire to be appreciated.
William James
Image
It is so human a book that I don't see how belief in its divine authority can survive the reading of it.
William James
Image
The good or bad is not in the circumstance, but only in the mind...that encounters it.
William James
Image
Results should not be too voluntarily aimed at or too busily thought of. They are sure to float up of their own accord from a long enough daily work at a given matter.
William James
Image
A man may not achieve everything he has dreamed, but he will never achieve anything great without having dreamed it first.
William James