William James Quotes

Browse 18 quotes from William James, featuring insights on success, personal growth, leadership, mindset, and achievement.
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Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.
If you can change your mind, you can change your life.
Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
Belief creates the actual fact.
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.
To change one's life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions.
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.
If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will.
Nothing is as fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

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