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Theory must mediate between all previous truths and certain new experiences

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
Experiences
Theory
Truth
Certain
Must
Mediate
Previous
Truths

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I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.
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Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second.
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Truth is one species of good, and not, as is usually supposed, a category distinct from good, and co-ordinate with it
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The drunken consciousness is one bit of the mystic consciousness, and our total opinion of it must find its place in our opinion of that larger whole.
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For the moment, what we attend to is reality.
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We are mere bundles of habits.
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The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
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Our beliefs and our attention are the same fact.
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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.
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No living person is sunk so low as not to be imitated by somebody.
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Footnotes -- little dogs yapping at the heels of the text
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Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
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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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All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.
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In modern eyes, precious though wars may be they must not be waged solely for the sake of the ideal harvest. Only when forced upon one, is a war now thought permissible.
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To change one's life: a. Start immediately b. B. Do it flamboyantly c. No exceptions Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted.
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How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young-or slender.
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It is so human a book that I don't see how belief in its divine authority can survive the reading of it.
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Truth happens to an idea
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A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
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