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 More Quotes by William James More Quotes From William James The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal. William James unionspassionmath Why may we not be in the universe, as our dogs and cats are in our drawingrooms and libraries? William James librarycatdog There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood bu those who hear it. William James misunderstoodstatisticslying Individuality is founded in feeling William James individualityfeelingsinspirational Truth in our ideas means their power to work. William James truthmeanideas The deepest hunger in human beings is the desire to be appreciated. William James appreciateddesirefriendship What we really need the poet's and orator's I help to keep alive in us is not, then, the common and gregarious courage which Robert Shaw showed when he marched with you, men of the Seventh Regiment. It is that more lonely courage which he showed when he dropped his warm commission in the glorious Second to head your dubious fortunes, negroes of the Fifty-fourth. That lonely kind of courage (civic courage as we call it in times of peace) is the kind of valor to which the monuments of nations should most of all be reared. William James lonelymenneeds Philosophy, beginning in wonder, as Plato and Aristotle said, is able to fancy everything different from what it is. It sees the familiar as if it were strange, and the strange as if it were familiar. It can take things up and lay them down again. It rouses us from our native dogmatic slumber and breaks up our caked prejudices. William James slumberplatophilosophy It does not follow, because our ancestors made so many errors of fact and mixed them with their religion, that we should therefore leave off being religious at all. By being religious we establish ourselves in possession of ultimate reality at the only points at which reality is given us to guard. Our responsible concern is with our private destiny, after all. William James destinyreligiousreality Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. William James laughterdancefunny My thinking is first and last and always for the sake of my doing, and I can only do one thing at a time. William James lastssakethinking What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition! William James rewards-and-recognitionmenfacts Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case. William James philosophicalcasesmatter So to feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end...and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear. William James anticipationusebrave Agisci come se quel che fai, facesse la differenza. La fa! William James 'Facts' are the bounds of human knowledge, set for it, not by it. William James sciencefactsknowledge This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it. William James purposeinspirationlife The whole drift of my education goes to persuade me that the world of our present consciousness is only one out of many worlds of consciousness that exist. William James consciousnesseducationworld Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not. William James holidayworkmen A difference which makes no difference is no difference at all. William James differences
