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To know an object is to lead to it through a context which the world provides

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
World
Provides
Context
Object
Lead
Objects
Truth

More quotes by William James

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Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second.
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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To know psychology, therefore, is absolutely no guarantee that we shall be good teacher.
William James
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We all have a lifelong habit of inferiority to our full self...
William James
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Give your dreams all you've got, and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.
William James
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[T]here is very little difference between one person and another, but what little difference ther eis, is very important.
William James
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Conversion is in its essence a normal adolescent phenomenon, incidental to the passage from the child's small universe to the wider intellectual and spiritual life of maturity.
William James
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The word 'cause' is an altar to an unknown god.
William James
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All of our life is but a mass of small habits - practical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual - that bear us irresistibly toward our destiny.
William James
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The difference between the first and second-best things in art absolutely seems to escape verbal definition -- it is a matter of a hair, a shade, an inward quiver of some kind -- yet what miles away in the point of preciousness!
William James
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The more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike, or tremble because we are sorry, angry, or fearful as the case may be.
William James
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If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
William James
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Despair lames most people, but it wakes others fully up.
William James
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Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
William James
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Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality.
William James
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We hear the words we have spoken, feel our own blow as we give it, or read in the bystander's eyes the success or failure of our conduct.
William James
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In my individual heart I fully believe my faith is as robust as yours. The trouble with your robust and full bodied faiths, however, is, that they begin to cut each others throats too soon, and for getting on in the world and establishing a modus vivendi these pestilential refinements and reasonablenesses and moderations have to creep in.
William James
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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.
William James
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Religion . . . shall mean for us the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in their solitude.
William James
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Earnestness means willingness to live with energy, though energy bring pain.
William James