A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows. William James More Quotes by William James More Quotes From William James The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly. William James uglyattitudemean The greatest weapon we have to combat stress is the ability to choose our thoughts. William James combatstressweapons One hears of the mechanical equivalent of heat. What we now need to discover in the social realm is the moral equivalent of war: something heroic that will speak to men as universally as war does, and yet will be as compatible with their spiritual selves as war has proved itself to be incompatible. William James spiritualmenwar Wisdom is learning what to overlook. William James philosophicallearningwisdom Actions seems to follow feeling, but really actions and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. William James pathtogetherfeelings We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable. William James philosophicalfatelife As the art of reading (after a certain stage in one's education) isthe art of skipping, so the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. William James readingwiseart The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief, and good, too, for definite, assignable reasons. William James truthnamesway We with our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest... But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground. William James rootsseaislands It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again. William James agebirthdaycharacter The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way. William James successcharacterlife Our acts of voluntary attending, as brief and fitful as they are, are nevertheless momentous and critical, determining us, as they do, to higher or lower destinies. William James criticaldestinyhigher The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires. William James truthinspiremean 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. William James takenupliftingsuccess Fear of life in one form or another is the great thing to exorcise. William James fears-of-lifegreat-thingsform An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation. William James philosophicalinspirationalideas Feed the growing human being, feed him with the sort of experience for which from year to year he shows a natural craving, and he will develop in adult life a sounder sort of mental tissue, even though he may seem to be 'wasting' a great deal of his growing time, in the eyes of those for whom the only channels of learning are books and verbally communicated information. William James educationalphilosophybook The love of life, at any and every level of development, is the religious impulse. William James love-lifedevelopmentreligious If you only care enough for a result, you will almost certainly attain it. Only you must, then, really wish these things, and wish them exclusively, and not wish at the same time a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly. William James careenoughwish Every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony. William James agonyindividuallonely
