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The first thing that intellect does with an object is to class it with something else.

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
Objects
Class
Else
Doe
Firsts
First
Thing
Intellect
Something
Object

More quotes by William James

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A good hypothesis in science must have other properties than those of the phenomenon it is immediately invoked to explain, otherwise it is not prolific enough.
William James
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It makes a tremendous emotional and practical difference to one whether one accepts the universe in the drab discolored way of stoic resignation to necessity, or with the passionate happiness of Christian saints.
William James
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There is no doubt that healthy-mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine, because the evil facts which it refuses positively to account for are a genuine portion of reality and they may after all be the best key to life's significance, and possibly the only openers of our eyes to the deepest levels of truth.
William James
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Results should not be too voluntarily aimed at or too busily thought of. They are sure to float up of their own accord from a long enough daily work at a given matter.
William James
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Time itself comes in drops.
William James
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A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed.
William James
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Men are now proud of belonging to a conquering nation, and without a murmur they lay down their persons and their wealth, if by so doing they may fend off subjection.
William James
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Between what a man calls me and what he simply calls mine the line is difficult to draw. We feel and act about certain things that are ours very much as we feel and act about ourselves.
William James
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True is the name for whatever idea starts the verification process, useful is the name for its completed function in experience
William James
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The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour.
William James
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So our self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do.
William James
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Lets take full advantage of this discovery
William James
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As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.
William James
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Faith branches off the highroad before reason begins
William James
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There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood bu those who hear it.
William James
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So long as antimilitarists propose no substitute for war's disciplinary function, no moral equivalent of war, analogous, as one might say, to the mechanical equivalent of heat, so long they fail to realize the full inwardness of the situation.
William James
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The greatest empiricists among us are only empiricists on reflection: when left to their instincts, they dogmatize like infallible popes.
William James
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Lay plans as if we were to be immortal.
William James
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Each of us is in fact what he is almost exclusively by virtue of his imitative-ness.
William James
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We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing.
William James