Quotes by William James

Footnotes the little dogs yapping at the heels of the text.

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.

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.

Whenever youre 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Time itself comes in drops.

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.

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

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

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

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

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.

Truth is what works.