"What Makes a Life Significant?"
1910s, Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (1911)
William James: Frases em inglês (página 12)
Frases em inglês.
"Is Life Worth Living?"
1890s, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)
“Tell him to live by yes and no — yes to everything good, no to everything bad.”
As quoted in The Thought and Character of William James (1935) by Ralph Barton Perry, Vol. II, ch. 91
1890s
1900s, The Moral Equivalent of War (1906)
The Dilemma of Determinism (1884)
1880s
“I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.”
Lecture III, Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered
1900s, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
"Reflex Action and Theism"
1890s, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)
“The trail of the human serpent is thus over everything.”
Lecture II, What Pragmatism Means
1900s, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
Fonte: 1890s, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 4
The Social Value of the College-Bred
1910s, Memories and Studies (1911)
Fonte: 1890s, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 15
Lectures XI, XII, and XIII, "Saintliness"
1900s, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)
Fonte: 1890s, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 8
Lecture VI, Pragmatism's Conception of Truth
1900s, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
Variante: Habit is thus the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservation agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor.
Fonte: 1890s, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 4
"Man alone, of all creatures of earth, can change his thought pattern and become the architect of his destiny." Actually said by Spencer W. Kimball, twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in his Miracle of Forgiveness (1969), p. 114. This predates any of the misquotations.
Other forms: "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." This is also misattributed to Albert Schweitzer.
James did say: "As life goes on, there is a constant change of our interests, and a consequent change of place in our systems of ideas, from more central to more peripheral, and from more peripheral to more central parts of consciousness."
Misattributed
To H. G. Wells (11 September 1906)
1920s, The Letters of William James (1920)
Lecture I, "Religion and Neurology"
1900s, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)