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
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.
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.
It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions. Intellect, will, taste, and passion co-operate just as they do in practical affairs; and lucky it is if the passion be not something as petty as a love of personal conquest over the philosopher across the way.
Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens outthe widest vistas. It 'bakes no bread', as has been said, but it can inspire our souls with courage.
The absolute things, the last things, the overlapping things, are the truly philosophic concerns; all superior minds feel seriously about them, and the mind with the shortest views is simply the mind of the more shallow man.
Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.
We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.
The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.
There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.
To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.
Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.
In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.
Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.