The inner need of believing that this world of nature is a sign of something more spiritual and eternal than itself is just as strong and authoritative in those who feel it, as the inner need of uniform laws of causation ever can be in a professionally scientific head.... Our faculties of belief were not primarily given us to make orthodoxies and heresies withal, they were given us to live by. And to trust our religious demands means first of all to live in the light of them.... The part of wisdom as well as of courage is to believe what is in the line of your needs, for only by such belief is the need fulfilled. Refuse to believe, and you shall indeed be right, for you shall irretrievably perish. But believe, and again you shall be right, for you shall save yourself.
More Quotes from William James:
Pluralism lets things really exist in the each-form or distributively. Monism thinks that the all-form or collective-unit form is the only form that is rational.William James
The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers
William James
How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.
William James
The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.
William James
To change your life Start immediately Do it flamboyantly No exceptions.
William James
Men habitually use only a small part of the power which they actually possess.
William James
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Based on Topics: Belief & Faith Quotes, Courage Quotes, Light Quotes, Nature Quotes, Sign & Symbol Quotes, Wisdom & Knowledge QuotesBased on Keywords: authoritative, causation, heresies, irretrievably, orthodoxies
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