The love of life, at any and every level of development, is the religious impulse. William James More Quotes by William James More Quotes From William James The gist of the matter is this: Every impression that comes in from without, be it a sentence which we hear, an object of vision, or an effluvium which assails our nose, no sooner enters our consciousness than it is drafted off in some determinate direction or other, making connection with the other materials already there, and finally producing what we call our reaction. The particular connections it strikes into are determined by our past experiences and the 'associations' of the present sort of impression with them. William James educationalphilosophypast Begin to be now what you will be hereafter. William James savingmotivationalinspirational The essence of genius is to know what to overlook. William James philosophicalgeniusessence Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world. William James contributioneffortworld The aim of science is always to reduce complexity to simplicity. William James aimcomplexitysimplicity Few people have definitely articulated philosophies of their own. But almost everyone has his own peculiar sense of a certain total character in the universe, and of the inadequacy of fully to match it [to] the peculiar systems that he knows. William James characterphilosophypeople Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. William James life-and-loveeffortexercise 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 doctorsprayerexercise Man alone of all the creatures of earth can change his own pattern. Man alone is the architect of his own destiny. William James destinytreemen The deepest longing in the human breast is the desire for appreciation. William James creativitydesireappreciation Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance. William James agentsuprisingwheels All natural goods perish. Riches take wings; fame is a breath; love is a cheat; youth and health and pleasure vanish. William James healthwingslove-is The discovery of the power of our thoughts will prove to be the most important discovery of our time William James importantdiscoverypositive It is art that makes life, and I know of no substitute whatsoever for the force and beauty of its process. William James forceprocessart There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness. William James companionshiptendernessaffinity The last peculiarity of consciousness to which attention is to be drawn in this first rough description of its stream is that it is always interested more in one part of its object than in another, and welcomes and rejects, or chooses, all the while it thinks. William James lastsattentionthinking Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive nervousness on their behalf. William James errorsheartworld The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one. William James carpe-diemphilosophicaleducation The education of attention would be an education par excellence William James excellencewould-beattention If there is aught of good in the style, it is the result of ceaseless toil in rewriting. Everything comes out wrong with me at first; but when once objectified in a crude shape, I can torture and poke and scrape and pat it till it offends me no more. William James toilstylefirsts
