William James Quotes

The only thing about a man that is a man is his mind.

First, then, I say, that the mind, which we often call the intellect, in which is placed the conduct and government of life, is not less an integral part of man himself, than the hand, and foot, and eyes, are portions of the whole animal.

The mind has three operations: the formation of ideas, judgements and reasoning.

My intellect has always been more responsible than my emotions for how I respond to the world.

Our actions are the results of our intentions and our intelligence.

As the heat of the coal differs from the coal itself, so do memory, perception, judgment, emotion, and will, differ from the brain which is the instrument of thought.

The truth is, man is hereunto led by reason which is his nature.

First, he must hold rational values, and to do this he must be a thinker.

The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct.

That which exercises reason is more excellent than that which does not exercise reason

The individual is the brain, not the heart.

I am convinced that the act of thinking logically cannot possibly be natural to the human mind. If it were, then mathematics would be everybody's easiest course at school and our species would not have taken several millennia to figure out the scientific method.

Man is distinguished from the brute animals in proportion as thought prevails over sense: but in the healthy processes of the mind, a balance is constantly maintained between the impressions from outward objects and the inward operations of the intellect:--for if there be an overbalance in the contemplative faculty, man thereby becomes the creature of mere meditation, and loses his natural power of action.

In all the universe there is nothing more precious than mind.

Suppose, gentleman, that man is not stupid.

Reason is man's faculty for grasping the world by thought, in contradiction to intelligence, which is man's ability to manipulate the world with the help of thought. Reason is man's instrument for arriving at the truth, intelligence is man's instrument for manipulating the world more successfully; the former is essentially human, the latter belongs to the animal part of man.

That in the soul which is called the mind is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing.

He that cannot reason is a fool.

Manushya (man) is a being with Manas (mind); and as soon as his thinking power goes, he becomes no better than an animal.

Brain: an apparatus with which we think that we think. Mind, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain.

Wit is the lightning of the mind, reason the sunshine, and reflection the moonlight.

Brains aren't everything, but they're important.

Thought makes the whole dignity of man; therefore endeavor to think well, that is the only morality.