The function of ignoring, of inattention, is as vital a factor in mental progress as the function of attention itself.

William James

If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door.

William James

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

William James

Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

William James

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

William James

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

William James

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

William James

Our faith is faith in someone else’s faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.

William James

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

William James

Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout.

William James

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

William James

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

William James

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.

William James

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

William James

If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick.

William James

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

William James

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.

William James

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

William James

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.

William James

Man lives for science as well as bread.

William James

Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.

William James

We don’t laugh because we’re happy, we’re happy because we laugh.

William James

Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.

William James

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.

William James