Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.
Category Archive: William James
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.
There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.
We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.