Quote

In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible.

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
Must
Initiative
Leaving
Decided
Habit
Possible
Strong
Care
Launch
Take
Acquisition

More quotes by William James

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A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.
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In the matter of belief, we are all extreme conservatives.
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In its broadest term, religion says that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in rightful relations to it.
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'Facts' are the bounds of human knowledge, set for it, not by it.
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So far war has been the only force that can discipline a whole community, and until an equivalent discipline is organized, I believe that war must have its way.
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The belief in free-will is not in the least incompatible with the belief in Providence, provided you do not restrict the Providence to fulminating nothing but fatal decrees.
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Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation.
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Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive.
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As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.
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Footnotes -- little dogs yapping at the heels of the text
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Organization and method mean much, but contagious human characters mean more in a university.
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Despair lames most people, but it wakes others fully up.
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Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.
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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.
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Choose a self and stand by it.
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We and God have business with each other, and in opening ourselves to God's influence our deepest destiny is fulfilled.
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To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.
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Man lives by habits indeed, but what he lives for is thrill and excitements. ... From time immemorial war has been ... the supremely thrilling excitement.
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Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.
William James
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Science must constantly be reminded that her purposes are not the only purposes and that the order of uniform causation which she has use for, and is therefore right in postulating, may be enveloped in a wider order, on which she has no claim at all.
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