William James

The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.

The difference between a good man and a bad man is the choice of cause.

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

The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

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

Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

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

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

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

Human beings are born into this little span of life of which the best thing is its friendship and intimacies, and soon their places will know them no more, and yet they leave their friendships and intimacies with no cultivation, to grow as they will by the roadside, expecting them to "keep" by force of inertia.

The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are impossible.

The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.

A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid or distasteful in itself. He breaks his engagements, leaves his letters unanswered, neglects his family duties incorrigibly, because he is powerless to turn his attention down and back from those more interesting trains of imagery with which his genius constantly occupies his mind.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely re-arranging their prejudices.

Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.

The stream of thought flows on; but most of its segments fall into the bottomless abyss of oblivion. Of some, no memory survives the instant of their passage. Of others, it is confined to a few moments, hours or days. Others, again, leave vestiges which are indestructible, and by means of which they may be recalled as long as life endures.

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

The whole drift of my education goes to persuade me that the world of our present consciousness is only one out of many worlds of consciousness that exist.

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they?ve got a second. Give your dreams all you?ve got and you?ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you!!

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

- William James