The Wisdom Letter #223
4 quotes from William James (1842–1910)
✹ For today’s Wisdom Letter, we have carefully curated four bite-sized quotes from the American philosopher and psychologist, William James (1842–1910), each paired with a philosophical question meant to provoke deep reflection:
Quote № 01:
“Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”
— William James
~ Follow-up Question:
To what extent do our beliefs shape our reality, and can optimism alone create meaningful change in difficult circumstances?
Quote № 02:
“You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.”
— William James
~ Follow-up Question:
How can educators balance fostering critical thinking and self-doubt in students without undermining their confidence and ability to take decisive action?
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Quote № 03:
“We divert our attention from disease and death as much as we can; the slaughterhouses are huddled out of sight and never mentioned, so that the world we recognize officially in literature and in society is a poetic fiction far handsomer, cleaner and better than the world that really is.”
— William James
~ Follow-up Question:
To what extent does society’s tendency to ignore suffering and unpleasant truths shape our collective morality and sense of reality?
Quote № 04:
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
— William James
~ Follow-up Question:
How can we distinguish between genuine critical thinking and simply reinforcing our existing biases in new ways?
✽ Thank you for reading today’s Wisdom Letter.
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QUOTE 3: I am almost at the end of reading "Jerusalem: A Biography". The book starts around 2,500BC. On almost every page is a history of slaughter, war, betrayal, rape, slavery, execution...reading this book, considering the number of wars that have occurred around the world even since I was born in 1973, has left me thinking that the human race is encumbered with evil. Evil afterall is something that only occurs within the human race, not the animal kingdom. Evil is a human trait and most of us learn to keep it at bay. Yet we spend every day pretending the world is all love and roses....
Encouraging the mind helps to distract us from the difficulties and challenges of life. By focusing and understanding, we affirm our worth and recognize that life is endless. Offering comfort with kindness teaches us the importance of the mind, which is essential to our humanity.