William James Quotes

The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living. The meaningful life adds one more component: using these same strengths to forward knowledge, power or goodness.

Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.

The outlines of the needed psychology of becoming can be discovered by looking within ourselves; for it is knowledge of our own uniqueness that supplies the first, and probably the best, hints for acquiring orderly knowledge of others.

I say that virtue is really all about enjoying yourself, living fully; but of course it is far from obvious what living fully actually means.

Life is the most versatile thing under the sun; and in the pursuit of life and character the author who works in a groove works in blinkers.

As a teacher I realize that what one learns in school doesn't serve for very much at all, that the only thing one can really learn is self-understanding, and this is something that can't be taught.

The delights of self-discovery are always available.

Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.

It is important for you to know who you are and who you may become. It is more important than what you do, even as vital as your work is and will be.

One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.

We can’t be what we don’t know.

I can't imagine, as a human being, not being able to grow.

I'm me, and the me that's me is me and is going to continue to be me, and it's always reaching and growing.

To know ourselves, is agreed by all to be the most useful Learning; the first Lessons, therefore, given us ought to be on that Subject.

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

I like this idea of becoming fully realised.

What I've come to know is that in life, it's not always the questions we ask, but rather our ability to hear the answers that truly enriches our understanding. Never, never stop learning.

Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone.

My ambition is to do what I like and to do good things that I might not have done before.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

Everybody grows in their own way.

One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.

You don't find out who you are unless you work at it.

I just try to live my life and do my thing.