william james

“ All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience. ”

“ Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. ”

“ I have to forge every sentence in the teeth of irreducible and stubborn facts. ”

“ The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action. ”

“ It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. ”

“ Science, like life, feeds on its own decay. New facts burst old rules; then newly divined conceptions bind old and new together into a reconciling law. ”

“ The whole universe of concrete objects, as we know them, swims in a wider and higher universe of abstract ideas, that lend it its significance. ”

“ Mystical states cannot be sustained for long. Except in rare instances, half an hour, or at most an hour or two, seems to be the limit beyond which they fade into the light of common day. ”

“ Every perception is an acquired perception. ”

“ All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods. ”