The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.
William James

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.
William James

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

The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.
William James

The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.
William James

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

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

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.
William James

The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.
William James

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

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.
William James

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.
William James

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.
William James

The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.
William James

The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour.
William James

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.
William James

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.
William James

There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness, and their companionship in the saintly life need in no way occasion surprise.
William James

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.
William James

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