Every great institution is perforce a means of corruption.
~ William James, in a letter to William M. Salter on September 11, 1899
Nature in her unfathomable designs has mixed us of clay and flame, of brain and mind, that the two things hang indubitably together and determine each other’s being, but how or why, no mortal may ever know.”
– in Principles of Psychology
The hell to be endured hereafter . . . is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way. Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be none. The drunken Rip van Winkle in Jefferson’s play excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, ‘I won’t count this time!’ Well, we may not count it, and a kind Heaven may not count it, but it is being counted none the less. Down among his nerve-ends and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering it, and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes.”
~ in Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals
Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
Human beings , by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.
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(NY: Harper, 1972), page 54:
Dostoevsky said, “If there is no God, then anything is possible.” I would say that if there is no love, nothing is possible. Man absolutely cannot live by himself.
