William James
William James
William Jameswas an American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, James was one of the leading thinkers of the late nineteenth century and is believed by many to be one of the most influential philosophers the United States has ever produced, while others have labelled him the "Father of American psychology". Along with Charles Sanders Peirce and John Dewey, he is considered to be...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth11 January 1842
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition
Time itself comes in drops.
Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout.
To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one's being added to that being.
The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.
The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.
Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
Man lives for science as well as bread.
If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door.
Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not.
If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick.
The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.
It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.