A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
Philosophers
William James
Born in New York in 1842, William James laid the intellectual foundations of both psychology and philosophy in America. He established the country's first psychology course in 1875, earning the title 'father of American psychology,' and co-founded pragmatism with Peirce. His concept of the 'stream of consciousness' influenced literature as well as science, and The Varieties of Religious Experience reframed religion as personal inner experience.
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William James's Other Quotes
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief, and good, too, for definite, assignable reasons.
Related Quotes
To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing.
-- Hypatia
Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies.
-- Hypatia
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
-- Confucius
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
-- John Locke
Once in one's life, everything should be called into doubt.
-- René Descartes
The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
-- Hannah Arendt