Quotes from William James
The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.
- William James
Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
- William James
It is only the fundamental conceptions of psychology which are of real value to a teacher.
- William James
Life feels like a real fight - as if there were something really wild in the universe which we, with all our idealities and faithfulnesses, are needed to redeem.
- William James
Every sort of energy and endurance, of courage and capacity for handling life's evils, is set free in those who have religious faith.
- William James
Our life is always deeper than we know, is always more divine than it seems, and hence we are able to survive degradations and despairs which otherwise must engulf us.
- William James
We must not just patch and tinker with life. We must keep renewing it. Embrace novelty and uniqueness.
- William James
Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.
- William James
Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.
- William James
The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.
- William James
The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have been flown for religious ideals.
- William James
There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough.
- William James