William James Quotes

1842-1910, American Psychologist, Professor, Author
quotes
111
topics
12
Origin
What do these mean?
Topic
“Belief creates the actual fact.”
Belief
“Wisdom is learning what to overlook.”
Wisdom
“The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.”
Worry
“Success plus Self-esteem equals Pretensions.”
Self-image
“To spend life for something which outlasts it.”
Achievement
“I will act as if what I do makes a difference.”
Action
“Events are influenced by our very great desires.”
Desire
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
Action
“Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.”
Life and Living
“Act in earnest and you will become earnest in all you do.”
Honesty
“Footnotes -- little dogs yapping at the heels of the text”
Writers and Writing
“If you want a trait, act as if you already have the trait.”
Action
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
VerifiedThe Principles of Psychology (1890) · evidenceWisdom
“To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.”
Psychiatry
“If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.”
Desire
“We don't laugh because we're happy -- we're happy because we laugh.”
Laughter
“We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.”
Life and Living
“If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick.”
Potential
“To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them ratified.”
Deception
“The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”
Approval
“Spiritual energy flows in and produces effects in the phenomenal world.”
Spirit and Spirituality
“There is a voice inside which speaks and says: ''This is the real me!''”
VerifiedTo his wife, Alice Gibbons James (1878) · evidenceSelf-love
“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”
Life and Living
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”
VerifiedTo Carl Stumpf (1 January 1886) · evidenceFatigue
“A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.”
Socializing and Socialism
“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”
Purpose
“A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.”
Ecology
“As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.”
Verified"The Will to Believe" p. 10 · evidenceBelief
“Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”
Verified"Is Life Worth Living?" · evidenceBelief