William James Quotes Page 2

“Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being.”

“Most unhappiness is caused because people listen to themselves... instead of talking to themselves.”

“My experience is what I agree to attend to.”

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

“Our view of the world is truly shaped by what we decide to hear.”

“Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.”

“Philosophy is an unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly.”

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

“Positive images of the future are a powerful and magnetic force... They draw us on and energize us, give us courage and will to take on important initiatives. Negative images of the future also have a magnetism. They pull the spirit downward in the path of despair.”

“Procrastination is attitude's natural assassin. There's nothing so fatiguing as an uncompleted task.”

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

“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.”

“Tension is a habit. Relaxing is a habit. Bad habits can be broken, good habits formed.”

“The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.”

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

“The discovery of the power of our thoughts will prove to be the most important discovery of our time.”

“The good we do today becomes the happiness of tomorrow.”

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

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. We need only in cold blood act as if the thing in question were real, and it will become infallibly real.”

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

“The minute a man ceases to grow, no matter what his years, that minute he begins to be old.”

“The soul is stronger than its surroundings.”

“The strenuous life tastes better.”

“The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal.”

“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 are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.”

“There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.”

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

“There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough.”

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