Quotes from William James

... no bell in us tolls to let us know for certain when truth is in our grasp.

I am well aware how odd it must seem to some of you to hear me say that an idea is true so long as to believe it is profitable to our lives

Truth is what works.

We have nothing to do but to receive, resting absolutely upon the merit, power, and love of our Redeemer.

Time itself comes in drops.

Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don't want to do

The most peculiar social self which one is apt to have is in the mind of the person one is in love with.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequence of any misfortune.

Be willing to have it so; acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

Men habitually use only a small part of the powers which they possess and which they might use under appropriate circumstances.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

Human beings are born into this little span of life of which the best thing is its friendships and intimacies ... and yet they leave their friendships and intimacies with no cultivation, to grow as they will by the roadside, expecting them to "keep" by force of mere inertia.

Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

With mere good intentions hell is proverbially paved.

The emotions are not always subject to reason ... but they are always subject to action. When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion, action will.

As Charles Lamb says, there is nothing so nice as doing good by stealth and being found out by accident, so I now say it is even nicer to make heroic decisions and to be prevented by 'circumstances beyond your control' from ever trying to execute them.

Habit is the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all.

An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing: 'There is very little difference between one man and another, but what there is is very important.'

An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of a revelation.

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

Every time a resolve or fine glow of feeling evaporates without bearing fruit, it is worse than a chance lost; it works to hinder future emotions from taking the normal path of discharge.

Impulse without reason is not enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift.

The thinker philosophizes as the lover loves. Even were the consequences not only useless but harmful, he must obey his impulse.