William James
Father of American psychology
Most quoted
"A man's Self is the sum total of all that he CAN call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and bank-account. All these things give him the same emotions. If they wax and prosper, he feels triumphant; if they dwindle and die away, he feels cast down."
— from The Principles of Psychology, 1890
"Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine."
— from The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902
"No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better."
— from Talks to Teachers on Psychology, 1899
All quotes by William James (263)
Our errors are not so much a matter of wrong thinking as wrong feeling.
The world is not a place of mere being, but of becoming.
The community of the saints is not a community of the perfect, but of the perfecting.
The truth of an idea is not a stagnant property inherent in it. Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.
No matter how full a reservoir of truth, if it be not fed by fresh springs, will soon grow stale and stagnant.
The first thing to learn in life is to do with what you have to do with.
The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, if only that we may be the more conscious of God.
The more we are able to see the good in others, the more good we will find in ourselves.
The world is a place of constant change, and we must learn to adapt to it.
The ultimate test of a moral system is its ability to produce good people.
The mind is a stream of consciousness, constantly flowing and changing.
Consciousness is not a thing, but a process.
The world is not a finished product, but a work in progress.
The value of a life is not in its duration, but in its donation.
The function of a man is to live, not to exist.
The greatest good we can do for others is not just to share our riches, but to reveal to them their own.
The world is a place of infinite possibilities, and we must embrace them.
The only way to find true happiness is to give it away.
The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.
The world is a place of constant struggle, but also of constant hope.
Contemporaries of William James
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of William James (1842–1910).