William James Quotes

Now look at me! Take a good look! I was born and I knew I was alive and I knew what I wanted. What do you think is alive in me? Why do you think I'm alive? Because I have a stomach and eat and digest the food? Because I breathe and work and produce more food to digest? Or because I know what I want, and that something which knows how to want—isn't that life itself? And who—in this damned universe—who can tell me why I should live for anything but for that which I want?

I hate to think life is just facts and laws.

Life has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one's will.

I come down on the side of free will but I have sympathy for those who believe in fate because there is something about life which we feel we have no control over.

I don't see what's so triffic about creating people as people and then gettin' upset cos' they act like people", said Adam severely. "Anyway, if you stopped tellin' people it's all sorted out after they're dead, they might try sorting it all out while they're alive.

I really believe that 'Saw' makes us stop and think and question our motives and what we're doing here on Earth.

What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.

We breathe, we think, we conceive of our lives as narratives.

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.

Ethical and questions of philosophy interest me a great deal.

Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.

Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.

What do I know of man's destiny? I could tell you more about radishes.

I like films that deal with some of those questions that you can never answer: 'Why are we here? What's it about? What happens to us with the choices that we make? What are the ramifications for doing something right, or doing something wrong?' Those universal questions, I enjoy.

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

'Hamlet' is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big, unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being; the difference between sanity and insanity; the meaning of life and death; what's real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.

Really, I'm only alive out of curiosity. I'm very curious about where we're all marching.

First, philosophy concerns itself with all kinds of issues that don't get much airtime in day-to-day life. What's the nature of reality? Can we ever truly know anything, and if so, how? What does it mean to be a moral agent? And while we're at it, is there any such thing as agency anyway?

Every human life involves an unfathomable mystery, for man is the riddle of the universe, and the riddle of man in his endowment with personal capacities.

A lot of my life is about will - having the will to prove what my body can do.

To be, or not to be, that is the question.

I became the stage for the great argument between Nietzsche and Rousseau. I was the extra ready to take on all the roles.

I believe there is meaning in life. I believe there is good and evil.

I want to study philosophy. That fascinates me.

I cannot give up my will - I must exercise it, putting it into action.