William James Quotes on Virtue
William James was a 19th and early 20th-century American philosopher and psychologist, one of the founders of pragmatism and a central figure in the early development of modern psychology. This page collects quotes attributed to William James on the topic of virtue, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
-
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
Ch. 22 -
Attributed to William James:
“Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake.”
-
Attributed to William James:
“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they have got a second.”
-
“What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural way, — nay, more, a menacing and an imminent way? And what sense can there be in condemning ourselves for taking the wrong way, unless we need have done nothing of the sort, unless the right way was open to us as well? I cannot understand the willingness to act, no matter how we feel, without the belief that acts are really good and bad.”
The Dilemma of Determinism (1884)