Quotes from William James

Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

Where quality is the thing sought after, the thing of supreme quality is cheap, whatever the price one has to pay for it.

Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive nervousness on their behalf.

Men's activities are occupied into ways -- in grappling with external circumstances and in striving to set things at one in their own topsy-turvy mind.

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

If you can change your mind, you can change your life.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

A man of sense is never discouraged by difficulties; he redoubles his industry and his diligence, he perseveres and infallibly prevails at last.

Deepest principle of human nature is to be appreciated.

We are proud of a human nature that could be so passionately extreme, but we shrink from advising others to follow the example.

The most immutable barrier in nature is between one man's thoughts and another's.

The old question of whether there is design is idle. The real question is what is the world, whether or not it have a designer--and that can be revealed only by the study of all nature's particulars.

Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them ratified.

Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits.

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.

Most men have a good memory for facts connected with their own pursuits.

Considering the inner fitness of things, one would rather think that the very first act of a will endowed with freedom should be to sustain the belief in the freedom itself.

An educated memory depends on an organized system of associations; and its goodness depends on two of their peculiarities: first, on the persistency of the associations; and, second, on their number.

The unrest which keeps the never-stopping clock metaphysics going is the thought that the non-existence of this world is just as possible as its existence.

It seems the natural thing for us to listen whilst the Europeans talk.

The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

If you want a confidence, act as if you already have it. Try the "as if" technique.