The best position is one of noninterference with another's peculiar ways of being happy, provided those ways do not interfere by violence with yours.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: freedom happiness acceptance toleration relationships society politics

As-if principle: If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: character growth self-improvement self-determination

Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together, and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude depression sadness emotions self-control

Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: desire obstacles challenges problems problem-solving work effort difficulties difficulty

Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.
William James The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: action work effort happiness joy fulfillment purpose meaning

We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its ever so little scar...Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out.
William James Alexandra Stoddard's Book of Days
Categories: character actions personality

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than anything else, will determine its successful outcome.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude success determination self-esteem self-confidence optimism

I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: happiness joy sttitude choice optimismic optimist

The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude choice optimismist optimistic success self-improvement change

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually, or morally, in a very restricted circle of their being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into the habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
William James You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought
Categories: potential self-improvement growth adversity challenges obstacles problems

All of us, in the flow of feeling we have pleased, want to do more to please.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: work effort success praise leadership teamwork

Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We're making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.
William James Soar... If You Dare
Categories: potential creativity intelligence stretch growth self-improvement

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that in itself is a choice.
William James The 13 Secrets of Power Performance
Categories: choose choice personal responsibility procrastination decisions

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
William James The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations
Categories: action meaning purpose service

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step in overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
William James Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Categories: acceptance adversity problems difficulties challenges

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
William James
Categories: attitude

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.
William James
Categories: attitude

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

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.
William James
Categories: prejudice