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Mental fire is what won't burn real sticks mental water is what won't necessarily (though of course it may) put out even a mentalfire.

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
Though
Water
Burn
Sticks
May
Necessarily
Real
Mental
Even
Fire
Courses
Course

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Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
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No one sees further into a generalization than his own knowledge of detail extends.
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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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I wished by treating Psychology like a natural science, to help her become one.
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Our intelligence cannot wall itself up alive, like a pupa in a chrysalis. It must at any cost keep on speaking terms with the universe that engendered it.
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Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don't want to do
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The most immutable barrier in nature is between one man's thoughts and another's.
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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.
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Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.
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[Pragmatism's] only test of probable truth is what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life best and combines with the collectivity of experience's demands, nothing being omitted.
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I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are IMPOSSIBLE.
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All that we need explicitly to note is that, the more the passive attention is relied on, by keeping the material interesting and the less the kind of attention requiring effort is appealed to the more smoothly and pleasantly the classroom work goes on.
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Our life is always deeper than we know, is always more divine than it seems, and hence we are able to survive degradations and despairs which otherwise must engulf us.
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We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.
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Act in earnest and you will become earnest in all you do.
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Our beliefs and our attention are the same fact.
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True ideas lead us into useful verbal and conceptual quarters as well as directly up to useful sensible termini. They lead to consistency, stability and flowing human intercourse.
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Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them.
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The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly.
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I take it that no man is educated who has never dallied with the thought of suicide.
William James