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
Instinct leads, logic does but follow.
We must be careful not to confuse data with the abstractions we use to analyse them.
So to feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end...and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear.
Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. Not through mere perversity do men run after it.
Tension is a habit. Relaxing is a habit. Bad habits can be broken, good habits formed.
We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing.
There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and said his say.
Man alone of all the creatures of earth can change his own pattern. Man alone is the architect of his own destiny.
There is no doubt that healthy-mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine, because the evil facts which it refuses positively to account for are a genuine portion of reality; and they may after all be the best key to life's significance, and possibly the only openers of our eyes to the deepest levels of truth.
If you give appreciation to people, you win their goodwill. But more important than that, practicing this philosophy has made a different person of me.
The greatest discovery of the 20th Century is that our attitude of mind determines our quality of life, not circumstances.
There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness.
All religions begin with the cry Help.
Life shall be built in doing and suffering and creating.