William James Quotes

There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough.

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

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

Positive images of the future are a powerful and magnetic force… They draw us on and energize us, give us courage and will to take on important initiatives. Negative images of the future also have a magnetism. They pull the spirit downward in the path of despair.

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

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

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

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.

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.

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.

Most unhappiness is caused because people listen to themselves… instead of talking to themselves.

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

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

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

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

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

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.