William James Quotes

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

~ William James

He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had tried and failed.

~ William James

How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young -- or slender.

~ William James

The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

~ William James

The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. As you think, so shall you be.

~ William James

Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

~ William James

We want all our friends to tell us our bad qualities; it is only the particular ass that does so whom we can't tolerate.

~ William James

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

~ William James

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that in itself is a choice.

~ William James

Human beings are born into this little span of life of which the best thing is its friendship and intimacies, and soon their places will know them no more, 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 inertia.

~ William James

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.'

~ William James

The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.

~ William James

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

~ William James

Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making.

~ William James