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

There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, it must not scream or curse.
William James

These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
William James

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.
William James

Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not.
William James

Time itself comes in drops.
William James

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else's type of thinking.
William James

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one's being added to that being.
William James

To be radical, an empiricism must neither admit into its constructions any element that is not directly experienced, nor exclude from them any element that is directly experienced.
William James

To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.
William James

To spend life for something which outlasts it.
William James

To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.
William James

Truth is what works.
William James

Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.
William James

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.
William James

We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.
William James

We don't laugh because we're happy - we're happy because we laugh.
William James

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.
William James

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.
William James

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!
William James