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
A great many people think they are thinking when they are rearranging theirprejudices.
We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing.
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.
A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.
Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working-day, he may safely leave the result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation.
Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, 'This is the real me,' and when you have found that attitude, follow it.
Belief creates the actual fact.
Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.
An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.
Lives based on having are less free than lives based either on doing or being.
Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.
There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.