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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
Else
Doe
Firsts
First
Thing
Intellect
Something
Object
Objects
Class

More quotes by William James

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Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system
William James
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You make a great, very great mistake, if you think that psychology, being the science of the mind's laws, is something from which you can deduce definite programmes and schemes and methods of instruction for immediate schoolroom use.
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Intellectualism' is the belief that our mind comes upon a world complete in itself, and has the duty of ascertaining its contents but has no power of re-determining its character, for that is already given.
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In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering.
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The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.
William James
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'Facts' are the bounds of human knowledge, set for it, not by it.
William James
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Science as such assuredly has no authority, for she can only say what is, not what is not.
William James
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When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion, action will.
William James
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When you have broken the reality into concepts you never can reconstruct it in its wholeness.
William James
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The war-function has grasped us so far but the constructive interests may some day seem no less imperative, and impose on the individual a hardly lighter burden.
William James
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Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.
William James
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A sense of humor is just common sense dancing.
William James
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The deepest hunger in human beings is the desire to be appreciated.
William James
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Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions.
William James
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The true'to put it very briefly, is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as 'the right' is only the expedient in the way of our behaving.
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First... a new theory is attacked as absurd then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.
William James
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If theological ideas prove to have a value for concrete life, they will be true, for pragmatism, in the sense of being good for so much. How much more they are true, will depend entirely on their relations to the other truths that also have to be acknowledged.
William James
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Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
William James
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A paradise of inward tranquility seems to be faith's usual result.
William James
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If you give appreciation to people, you win their goodwill.
William James