William James quotes

Born
January 11, 1842 New York City, New York.

Died
August 26, 1910.

Occupation
Philosopher, psychologist.

William James was an American philosopher and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.

Genius… means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
– William James

If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.
– William James

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.
– William James

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.
– William James

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.
– William James

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
– William James

Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
– William James

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

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

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

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

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

Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.
– William James

If merely ‘feeling good’ could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.
– William James

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

Time itself comes in drops.
– William James

Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not.
– William James

We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.
– William James

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

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.
– William James

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

There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, it must not scream or curse.
– William James

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

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.
– William James

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.
– William James

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
– William James

Belief creates the actual fact.
– William James

The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.
– William James

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

Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.
– William James

I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.
– William James

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
– William James

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
– William James

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.
– William James

‘Pure experience’ is the name I gave to the immediate flux of life which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories.
– William James

Man lives for science as well as bread.
– William James

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

To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.
– William James

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.
– William James

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.
– William James

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.
– William James

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.
– William James

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