#hi

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

#any #attitude #curse #glad #grin

We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable. ↗

— William James

#doomed #even #find #life #unendurable

Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind! ↗

— William James

#anything #believes #cheap #discourse #faith

Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings. ↗

— William James

#blame #common #determines #does #environment

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

— William James

#individuals #man #many #recognize #selves

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible. ↗

— William James

#chosen #equally #ethical #out #possible

It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true. ↗

— William James

#beforehand #come #enough #faith #hour

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again. ↗

— William James

#age #character #like #most #never

We, as we read, must become Greeks, Romans, Turks, priest and king, martyr and executioner; must fasten these images to some reality in our secret experience, or we shall learn nothing rightly. ↗

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

#learning #reading #experience

The 'I think' which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the 'I breathe' which actually does accompany them. ↗

— William James

#accompany #actually #breathe #does #i