Quotes from William James
In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.
- William James
It is as important to cultivate your silence power as your word power.
- William James
The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.
- William James
The exercise of prayer in those who habitually exert it must be regarded by us doctors as the most adequate and normal of all the pacifiers of the mind and calmers of the nerves.
- William James
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.
- William James
Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.
- William James
Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.
- William James
In its broadest term, religion says that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in rightful relations to it.
- William James
Since belief is measured by action, he who forbids us to believe religion to be true, necessarily also forbids us to act as we should if we did believe it to be true.
- William James
[Religion is] the attempt to be in harmony with an unseen order of things.
- William James
All religions and spiritual traditions begin with the cry "Help!
- William James
Life is one long struggle between conclusions based on abstract ways of conceiving cases, and opposite conclusions prompted by our instinctive perception of them.
- William James