William James Quotes

The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality.

Most unhappiness is caused because people listen to themselves… instead of talking to themselves.

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

There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.

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.

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

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

 

You may not get everything you dream about, but you will never get anything you don’t dream about.

There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough.

The greatest discovery of the 20th Century is that our attitude of mind determines our quality of life, not circumstances.

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.

Positive images of the future are a powerful and magnetic force… They draw us on and energize us, give us courage and will to take on important initiatives. Negative images of the future also have a magnetism. They pull the spirit downward in the path of despair.

The good we do today becomes the happiness of tomorrow.

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

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.

Formula to live your dream: 1. Be bold. 2. Begin now, 3. No exceptions.

Actions seems to follow feeling, but really actions 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. Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.

The minute a man ceases to grow, no matter what his years, that minute he begins to be old.

To kill time is not murder, it’s suicide.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

The mind is made up by what it feeds upon.

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

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.