This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.
Category Archive: William James
In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.
To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.
The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.
Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.
One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling.
If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
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.
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.
The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.