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. William James on power
Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude. William James on relationship
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. William James on sad
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 on science
Man lives for science as well as bread. William James on science
Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. William James on sports
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. William James on success
The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community. William James on sympathy
Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not. William James on truth
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 on truth
We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood. William James on truth
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. William James on wisdom
Wisdom is learning what to overlook. William James on wisdom
Individuality is founded in feeling and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done. William James on work
Better risk loss of truth than chance of error. William James on risk
The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the Bitch-Goddess success. That - with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word success - is our national disease. William James on success
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. William James on wisdom