William James Quotes

There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.

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.

Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.

Once a decision is reached, stop worrying and start working.

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

In business for yourself, not by yourself.

Man lives in only one small room of the enormous house of his consciousness.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.

Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.