William James quotes

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour.

There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, it must not scream or curse.

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.

If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.

The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.

Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

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

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

Belief creates the actual fact.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

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

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.

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

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.

The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.

It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

'Pure experience' is the name I gave to the immediate flux of life which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories.

The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour.

Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second.

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, it must not scream or curse.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

Truth is what works.

If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.

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

Man lives for science as well as bread.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.

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

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.

Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.