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The mind, in short, works on the data it receives very much as the sculptor works on his block of stone.
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
Stones
Short
Sculptor
Works
Sculptors
Much
Receives
Mind
Stone
Block
Data
More quotes by William James
What excites and interests the looker-on at life, what the romances and the statues celebrate, and the grim civic monuments remind us of, is the everlasting battle of the powers of light with those of darkness with heroism reduced to its bare chance, yet ever and anon snatching victory from the jaws of death.
William James
I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!.
William James
If you want to change your life, do it flamboyantly and start immediately.
William James
Choose a self and stand by it.
William James
It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all.
William James
Psychology is a science, and teaching is an art and sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves.
William James
From a pragmatic point of view, the difference between living against a background of foreigness (an indifferent Universe) and one of intimacy (a benevolent Universe) means the difference between a general habit of wariness and one of trust.
William James
Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
William James
When you have broken the reality into concepts you never can reconstruct it in its wholeness.
William James
In all this process of acquiring conceptions, a certain instinctive order is followed. There is a native tendency to assimilate certain kinds of conception at one age, and other kinds of conception at a later age.
William James
As the brain-changes are continuous, so do all these consciousnesses melt into each other like dissolving views. Properly they are but one protracted consciousness, one unbroken stream.
William James
That which is most personal, is most interesting.
William James
The work that leads to a doctor's degree is a constant temptation to sacrifice one's growth as a man to one's growth as a specialist.
William James
No one sees further into a generalization than his own knowledge of detail extends.
William James
As long as there are postmen, life will have zest.
William James
We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.
William James
When a thing is new, people say: ‘It is not true.’ Later, when its truth becomes obvious, they say: ‘It is not important.’ Finally, when its importance cannot be denied, they say: ‘Anyway, it is not new.
William James
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.
William James
... I am the same personal being who in old times upon the Earth had those experiences.
William James
Our volitional habits depend, then, first, on what the stock of ideas is which we have and, second, on the habitual coupling of the several ideas with action or inaction respectively.
William James
