William James

Explore 24 quotes by William James

I firmly disbelieve, myself, that our human experience is the highest form of experience extant in the universe. I believe rather that we stand in much the same relation to the whole of the universe as our canine and feline pets do to the whole of human life. They inhabit our drawing-rooms and libraries. They take part in scenes of whose significance they have no inkling. They are merely tangent to curves of history the beginnings and ends and forms of which pass wholly beyond their ken. So we are tangent to the wider life of things.

William James

Pragmatism

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and the universe

Author

William James

Source

Pragmatism

Genre

Philosophical speech

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "Pragmatism and Religion." Dec. 1906, Lowell Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "Pragmatism and Religion." Pragmatism. Dover Publications, 2018.

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

William James

The Principles of Psychology

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Topic

Moral theory Decisions and choices

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 9.

We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar... Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out.

William James

The Principles of Psychology

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Topic

Formation of character Decisions and choices Actions have consequences

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 4.

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

William James

The Will to Believe

More information about this quote

Topic

Evidence Certainty

Author

William James

Source

The Will to Believe

Genre

Psychological literature Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "The Will to Believe." Philosophical Club of Yale University. Apr. 1896, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "The Will to Believe." William James: Essays and Lectures, edited by Richard Kamber. Routledge, 2016.

Some people are far more sensitive to resemblances, and far more ready to point out wherein they consist, than others are. They are the wits, the poets, the inventors, the scientific men, the practical geniuses.

William James

The Principles of Psychology

More information about this quote

Topic

Combinatorial creativity Creativity

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 13.

A genuine first-hand religious experience... Is bound to be a heterodoxy to its witnesses, the prophet appearing as a mere lonely madman. If his doctrine prove contagious enough to spread to any others, it becomes a definite and labeled heresy. But if it then still prove contagious enough to triumph over persecution, it becomes itself an orthodoxy, its day of inwardness is over: the spring is dry; the faithful live at second hand exclusively and stone the prophets in their turn.

William James

The Varieties of Religious Experience

More information about this quote

Topic

Religion

Author

William James

Source

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "The Value of Saintliness." Gifford Lecture. c. 1902, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "The Value of Saintliness." The Varieties of Religious Experience, edited by Martin E. Marty. Penguin Classics, 1982.

The philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos.

William James

Pragmatism

More information about this quote

Topic

Worldview Meaning of life

Author

William James

Source

Pragmatism

Genre

Philosophical speech

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "The Present Dilemma in Philosophy." Nov. 1906, Lowell Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "The Present Dilemma in Philosophy." Pragmatism. Dover Publications, 2018.

Habit is... The enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance.

William James

The Principles of Psychology

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Topic

Habits

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 4.

Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits…It is nothing jointed; it flows. A "river" or a "stream" are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life.

William James

The Principles of Psychology

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Topic

Consciousness

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 9.

Let anyone try, I will not say to arrest, but to notice or attend to, the present moment of time. One of the most baffling experiences occurs. Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming.

William James

The Principles of Psychology

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Topic

Nature of time The present Mindfulness

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 15.

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

William James

The Will to Believe

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of thought Beliefs

Author

William James

Source

The Will to Believe

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "The Will to Believe." Philosophical Club of Yale University. Apr. 1896, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "The Will to Believe." William James: Essays and Lectures, edited by Richard Kamber. Routledge, 2016.

An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing: "There is very little difference between one man and another; but what little there is, is very important." This distinction seems to me to go to the root of the matter.

William James

The Will to Believe

More information about this quote

Topic

Difference

Author

William James

Source

The Will to Believe

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. "The Importance of Individuals." The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897.

The God whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.

William James

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Read Conclusions at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Nature of God

Author

William James

Source

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "Conclusions." Gifford Lecture. c. 1902, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "Conclusions." The Varieties of Religious Experience, edited by Martin E. Marty. Penguin Classics, 1982.

I have often thought that the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: "This is the real me!"

William James

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Topic

Character The self Personality

Author

William James

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1878 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. Letter to Alice Gibbons James. 1878.

I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.

William James

Pragmatism

More information about this quote

Topic

Existence of God

Author

William James

Source

Pragmatism

Genre

Philosophical speech

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered." Nov. 1906, Lowell Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered." Pragmatism. Dover Publications, 2018.

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

William James

The Principles of Psychology

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Topic

Wisdom Judgment

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 2, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 22.

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

William James

The Principles of Psychology

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Topic

Genius Different perspectives

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 2, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 19.

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

William James

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Topic

Indecision Decisions and choices

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 4.

In its widest possible sense, however, a man's Self is the sum total of all that he can call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and bank account. All these things give him the same emotions. If they wax and prosper, he feels triumphant; if they dwindle and die away, he feels cast down.

William James

The Principles of Psychology

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More information about this quote

Topic

The self

Author

William James

Source

The Principles of Psychology

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890, ch. 10.

Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation.

William James

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Read Mysticism at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Consciousness

Author

William James

Source

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "Mysticism." Gifford Lecture. c. 1902, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "Mysticism." The Varieties of Religious Experience, edited by Martin E. Marty. Penguin Classics, 1982.