Quote#Courage
The more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we cry,…
Quote byWilliam James · 1842–1910
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 25.
English (original)
The more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike, or tremble, because we are sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be. Without the bodily states following on the perception, the latter would be purely cognitive in form, pale, colorless, destitute of emotional warmth.
— William James
More from William James
The stronghold of the determinist argument is the antipathy to the idea of chance...This notion of alternative possibility, this admission that any one of several things may come to pass is, after all, only a roundabout name for chance.
"What is meant by saying that my choice of which way to walk home after the lecture is ambiguous and matter of chance?...It means that both Divinity Avenue and Oxford Street are called but only one, and that one either one, shall be chosen.
Freedom is only necessity understood.
The most any one can do is to confess as candidly as he can the grounds for the faith that is in him, and leave his example to work on others as it may.
All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods.
We have nothing to do but to receive, resting absolutely upon the merit, power, and love of our Redeemer.