Are you looking for inspirational William James quotes? We made a collection of the best inspirational and motivational William James quotes on philosophy and psychology that may relate to you.
His insightful and inspiring quotes on a wide range of topics continue to inspire and enlighten readers to this day. As an early leader in American psychology, James is widely considered to be one of the most influential figures in the development of modern psychology.
Who is William James:
William James, born in New York in 1892, was an American philosopher and psychologist who also studied medicine. He is regarded as the “Father of American Psychology” and was a key contributor to the evolution of contemporary psychology. He studied medicine at first, but after reading the writings of philosophers such as John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer, he got interested in psychology.
Read More: 5 Must-Read Books To Understand Human Psychology
James was especially interested in the link between psychology and religion, and he wrote extensively about mysticism and religious believers’ psychological experiences. His book “The Varieties of Religious Experience” is regarded as a classic in the field of psychology, and it is still widely read today. Also read Confucius Quotes.
Here are some Facts about Williams James:
- In his youth, James was a very skilled athlete who excelled in rowing, boxing, and wrestling.
- William was a fluent speaker who spoke numerous languages fluently, including English, French, German, and Latin.
- James was a close friend of philosopher and psychologist Charles S. Peirce, with whom he frequently communicated and cooperated on philosophical and psychological issues.
- He was a firm advocate of civil rights and was prominent in social reform campaigns such as the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage.
- James was a skilled public speaker recognized for his captivating and lively talks. He was also a popular instructor, and his classes at Harvard University were frequently overcrowded.
- William James passed away on August 26, 1910, in Chocorua, New Hampshire, USA. He had been suffering from various medical conditions, including heart disease and diabetes, for many years.
Famous Quotes By William James
Formula to live your dreams: 1. Be bold. 2. Begin now. 3. No exceptions.
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task that, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.
Common sense and a sense of humor are the same things, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.
The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.
Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.
Compared with what we ought to be, we are half awake.
Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
Truth in our ideas means their power to work.
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true self.
What an awful trade that of a professor is—paid to talk, talk, talk!. . It would be an awful universe if everything could be converted into words, words, words.
Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits.
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task that, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.
Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
A winner’s attitude: it may be difficult, but it’s possible. A loser’s attitude: It may be possible, but it’s too difficult.
Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
Pessimism leads to weakness and optimism to power.
Give your dreams all you’ve got, and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.
To kill time is not murder, it’s suicide.
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.
He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had tried and failed.
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
All natural goods perish. Riches take wings; fame is a breath; love is a cheat; youth and health and pleasure vanish.
To change one’s life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.
Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.
How to gain, how to keep, and 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.
The good we do today becomes the happiness of tomorrow.
If merely ‘feeling good’ could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.
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.
The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.
We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh.
The intellectual life of man consists almost wholly in his substituting a conceptual order for the perceptual order in which his experience originally comes.
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.
Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon, of which we do not dream.
The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.
Our view of the world is truly shaped by what we decide to hear.
It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all.
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
Studying the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.
Do something every day for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.
The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.
Genius… means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
Procrastination is attitude’s natural assassin.
The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
Most unhappiness is caused because people listen to themselves… instead of talking to themselves.
We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.
Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality.
I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather I fear losing truth by the pretension to possess it already wholly.
There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.
Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other sees him, and each man as he really is.
Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
Wherever you are, it is your friends who make your world.
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.
Our view of the world is truly shaped by what we decide to hear.
There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough.
Man lives in only one small room of the enormous house of his consciousness.
You may not get everything you dream about, but you will never get anything you don’t dream about.
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.
Your hopes, dreams, and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them.
The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.
If you can change your mind, you can change your life.
Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.
If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.
Tension is a habit. Relaxing is a habit. Bad habits can be broken, and good habits are formed.
Habit simplifies our movements, makes them accurate, and diminishes fatigue.
Real servants don’t try to use God for their purposes. They let God use them for His purposes.
There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.
Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul, None is more gladdening or fruitful than to know You can regenerate and make yourself what you will.
