William James Quotes

It's really hard to separate fantasy from reality.

I know I am delusional at times, but I'm not completely-out-of-touch delusional.

The biggest problem we have as human beings is that we confuse our beliefs with reality.

People who confuse what they wish were true with what is really true create distorted pictures of reality that make it impossible for them to make the best choices.

A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.

Whatever happens in the world is real, what one thinks should have happened is projection. We suffer more from our fictitious illusion and expectations of reality.

Ever since I was a little girl, I've worried too much. It always bothers me because sometimes you end up worrying more about the worry and you are not resolving things that are right there in front of you. I have been like that all my life, and it's hard to change.

All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.

Belief in the absence of illusions is itself an illusion.

Fear warps our understanding of reality and even our ability to see reality clearly.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Perception is created and twisted so quickly.

It is true that too much belief can be bad for your health.

When all else fails there's always delusion.

Illusion is an anodyne, bred by the gap between wish and reality.

... imagination robs us in great measure of reality...

Perception is not always reality.

I try not to go down the 'what if' road very often. It isn't fruitful and just makes you feel crummy.

I'm so grateful for my endless delusion.

Logical thinking keeps you from wasting time worrying, or hoping. It prevents disappointment. Imagination, on the other hand, only gets you hyped up over things that will never realistically happen.

If you believe that feeling bad will change a past event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.

No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability.

The delusional is no longer marginal.

How can you wonder what's going to happen when you don't know who's going to be the new guy in town? It's the age-old thing - it's such a cliché - but why worry about things you have no control over? What I can do is try to get this club to continue to play well. That's all I can do.

No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp.