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
All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.
Genius... means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.
If this life is not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight.
One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling.
We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.
The voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, and act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. To feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end, and courage will very likely replace fear.
Anything you may hold firmly in your imagination can be yours.
Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.
Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit.
The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.
My experience is what I agree to attend to.
What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!
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.