William James

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.”

“The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.”

“In business for yourself, not by yourself.”

“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.”

“The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.”

“If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.”

“To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.”

“The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.”

“If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.”

“'Pure experience' is the name I gave to the immediate flux of life which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories.”

“There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.”

“Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.”

“Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.”

“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.”

“If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door.”

“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.”

“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.”

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”

“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”