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It is only the fundamental conceptions of psychology which are of real value to a teacher.

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
Teaching
Teacher
Values
Conceptions
Art
Conception
Real
Psychology
Fundamental
Fundamentals
Value

More quotes by William James

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Smitten as we are with the vision of social righteousness, a God indifferent to everything but adulation, and full of partiality for his individual favorites, lacks an essential element of largeness.
William James
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Selection is the very keel on which our mental ship is built. And in this case of memory its utility is obvious. If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing.
William James
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At bottom, the whole concern of religion is with the manner of our acceptance of the universe.
William James
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With mere good intentions hell is proverbially paved.
William James
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How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.
William James
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Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity.
William James
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Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain.
William James
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A thing is important if anyone think it important.
William James
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Instinct leads, logic does but follow.
William James
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For the moment, what we attend to is reality.
William James
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a man does not cry because he is sad, he is sad because he cries
William James
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Language is the most imperfect and expensive means yet discovered for communicating thought.
William James
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Serious development of the personality begins at the closet door.
William James
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The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
William James
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The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.
William James
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But petitional prayer is only one department of prayer and if we take the word in the wider sense as meaning every kind of inward communion or conversation with the power recognized as divine, we can easily see that scientific criticism leaves it untouched. Prayer in this wide sense is the very soul and essence of religion.
William James
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Positive images of the future are a powerful and magnetic force... They draw us on and energize us, give us courage and will to take on important initiatives. Negative images of the future also have a magnetism. They pull the spirit downward in the path of despair.
William James
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To suggest personal will and effort to one all sicklied o'er with the sense of irremediable impotence is to suggest the most impossible of things. What he craves is to be consoled in his very powerlessness, to feel that the spirit of the universe recognizes and secures him, all decaying and failing as he is.
William James
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Every time a resolve or a fine glow of feeling evaporates without bearing practical fruit is worse than a chance lost it works so as positively to hinder future resolutions and emotions from taking the normal path of discharge.
William James
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We are stereotyped creatures, imitators and copiers of our past selves.
William James