William James Quotes

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

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

Much of what we call evil can often be converted into a bracing and tonic good by a simple change of the sufferer's inner attitude from one of fear to one of fight

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

The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequence of any misfortune.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Our intelligence cannot wall itself up alive, like a pupa in a chrysalis. It must at any cost keep on speaking terms with the universe that engendered it.

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

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

Why may we not be in the universe, as our dogs and cats are in our drawingrooms and libraries?

It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.

With mere good intentions hell is proverbially paved.

The unrest which keeps the never-stopping clock metaphysics going is the thought that the non-existence of this world is just as possible as its existence.

Impulse without reason is not enough and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift.

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

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

To change one’s life: 1. Start immediately. 2. Do it flamboyantly. 3. No exceptions.

You are going to get over it sooner or later so get over it now.

Life is one long struggle between conclusions based on abstract ways of conceiving cases and opposite conclusions prompted by our instinctive perception of them.

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

Action may not always bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

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

We know the meaning so long as no one asks us to define it.

Man lives by habits indeed but what he lives for is thrill and excitements. ... From time immemorial war has been ... the supremely thrilling excitement.

If you want a quality act as if you already had it.

The thinker philosophizes as the lover loves. Even were the consequences not only useless but harmful he must obey his impulse.

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.

Truth is what works.

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.

If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.

To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create that fact.

Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that ensures the successful outcome of our venture.

There is something almost shocking in the notion of so chaste a function carrying this Kantian hurlyburly in her womb.

Lives based on having are less free than lives based either on doing or on being.

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

The first thing to learn in intercourse with others is non-interference with their own peculiar ways of being happy provided those ways do not assume to interfere with ours.

Time itself comes in drops.

Psychology is the science of mental life

Most men's friendships are too inarticulate.

Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us our hour of triumph is what brings the void.

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

Be willing to have it so acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

An outree explanation, violating all our preconceptions, would never pass for a true account of a novelty. We should scratch round industriously till we found something less excentric.

The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.

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

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.

The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. As you think, so shall you be.