William James Quotes

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Grin, Curse

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

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Case, Matters

• The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Twenty-Five, Lives

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

  William James

  Topics in Genius

  Tags in Creativity

• Religion, whatever it is, is a man’s total reaction upon life.

  William James

  Topics in Life, Religion

  Tags in Men

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

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Indecision, Miserable

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

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Awake, Compared

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

  William James

  Topics in Humor

  Tags in Different, Common

• This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Worth, Make, Living

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

  William James

  Topics in Service

  Tags in Chain, Link

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

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Weapon, Choose

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

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Choice, Make

• [T]he true is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as the right is only the expedient in the way of our thinking.

  William James

  Topics in Truth

  Tags in Ethics, Good, Thinking

• To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Philosopher, Some

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Good Man, Some

• Pragmatism asks its usual question. “Grant an idea or belief to be true,” it says, “what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone’s actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? What, in short, is the truth’s cash-value in experiential terms?

  William James

  Topics in Truth

  Tags in Philosophy

• If a man’s good for nothing else, he can at least teach philosophy.

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Philosophy

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

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Philosophy

• Man lives for science as well as bread.

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in School, Well

• I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.

  William James

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Happy, Sing

William James (125)

Birth:	11th January, 1842
Death:	26th August, 1910
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Philosopher, Psychologist

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