WILLIAM JAMES – SOME QUOTATIONS


Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

Belief creates the actual fact.

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our mental and physical resources.

Do every day or two something for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

Everyone knows that on any given day there are energies slumbering in him which the incitement's of that day do not call forth. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. The human individual usually lives far within his limits.

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

Genius... means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

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

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

I will act as if what I do makes a difference.

If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick.

If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door.

If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.

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

Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second.

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.

Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found?

One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling.

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.

Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout.

Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.

Spiritual energy flows in and produces effects in the phenomenal world.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity. Successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.

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

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

The exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess Success is our national disease.

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

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

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

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.

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.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.

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

We can act as if there were a God; feel as if we were free; consider Nature as if she were full of special designs; lay plans as if we were to be immortal; and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life.

We don't laugh because we're happy - we're happy because we laugh.

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.

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.