William James Quotes


Failure, then, failure! so the world stamps us at every turn. We strew it with our blunders, our misdeeds, our lost opportunities, with all the memorials of our inadequacy to our vocation. And with what a damning emphasis does it then blot us out! No easy fine, no mere apology or formal expiation, will satisfy the world's demands, but every pound of flesh exacted is soaked with all its blood. The subtlest forms of suffering known to man are connected with the poisonous humiliations incidental to these results.


Citations

James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1902, p. 138.

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William James
William James
  • Born: January 11, 1842
  • Died: August 26, 1910
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Philosopher

William James was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the late nineteenth century, one of the most influential philosophers of the United States, and the "Father of American psychology".