William James

"For most of us, the world is found in our heads. We are what we think."

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

"The most sacred principle of life is not suffering but acceptance through understanding."

"Maturity means the courage to live with incompleteness."

"Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life is another."

"The moral equivalent of war consists in the heroic deeds of peace."

"We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone."

"The greatest enemies of progress are habits of thought which become mechanical and stop genuine thinking."

"Feeling rather than intellect is at the base of moral decisions."

"We are not only thinking creatures but feeling creatures above all."

"The deepest-principle of human nature is the desire to be appreciated, and the surest way is to appreciate others first."

"The true possession of everything is the power to suspend our possession."

"There is very little difference between one man and another; but what little there is, is very important."

"My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind."

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

"When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice, often the worst one."

"Times and places and congruities are not to be shaken off as immaterial accidents."

"Genius is an exaggeration of one particular human capacity already present in much smaller degree in many men."

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering the attitudes of their minds."

"The true scientist and the true artist have both to do with essences, not appearances."

"Happiness is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person."

"We learn to skate in the winter and to coast in the summer."

"The mind of a person is his primary asset in life."

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."

"The most important discovery of any generation is that you can change your circumstances by changing your thoughts."

"Life itself is a school, and every experience can teach us something valuable about ourselves and others."

"The resistance against a new idea increases by the square of its importance."

"Poverty of life is poverty of soul. Richness of life is richness of experience and understanding."

"A sincere effort to live by moral principles will always be rewarded, even if not immediately or visibly."

"We owe the truth to ourselves first, and then to others."