William James

“Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.”

“The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.”

“Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.”

“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.”

“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”

“Belief creates the actual fact.”

“Knowledge about life is one thing effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.”

“If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.”

“If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.”

“Wisdom is learning what to overlook.”

“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.”

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.”

“This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.”

“A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.”

“The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.”

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”

“Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.”

“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

“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.”

“Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.”

“Man lives for science as well as bread.”

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

“The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.”

“Time itself comes in drops.”