#t

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

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

— William James

#chosen #equally #ethical #out #possible

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. ↗

— William James

#fact #gain #happiness #how #in fact

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

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better. ↗

— William James

#advantage #better #character #concrete #entirely

Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout. ↗

— William James

#devout #esteem #facts #itself #neutralized

We remained in Texas leading a quiet home life until 1889. ↗

— Calamity Jane

#home life #leading #life #quiet #remained

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