William James

You have enormous untapped power you’ll probably never tap, because most people never run far enough on their first wind to ever find they have a second.

Only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

Act the part and you will become the part.

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.

Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, "This is the real me," and when you have found that attitude, follow it.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true self.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

To change your life: start immediately; do it flamboyantly; no exceptions.

When you have to make a choice and you don't make it, that itself is a choice.

The path to cheerfulness is to sit cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.

Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about 'unthinkable things' because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.

To change one’s life, start immediately, do it flamboyantly, no exceptions.

The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. As you think, so shall you be.

Most people live—whether physically, intellectually or morally—in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon which we do not dream.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.

All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.

The sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if your cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

My experience is what I agree to attend to.

And the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. ... An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.

Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction.

If you want a quality, act as if you already have it.

If you want a quality, act as if you already have it.

The sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness . . . is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. . . . To wrestle with a bad feeling only pins our attention on it, and keeps it still fastened in the mind.

The human individual lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum . . . the habit of inferiority to our full self—that is bad.

I hope that . . . the ideal of the well-trained and vigorous body will be maintained neck by neck with that of the well-trained and vigorous mind, as the coequal halves of the higher education, for men and women alike.

These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

Everyone should do at least two things each day he hates to do, just for practice.

Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources . . . Stating the thing broadly, the human individual lives far within his limits.

To change one’s life, start immediately, do it flamboyantly, no exceptions.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual lives far within his limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.