William James Quotes

Pessimism leads to weakness. Optimism leads to power.

William James

• Weakness
• Optimism
• Pessimism

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Quotes to Explore

• My pessimism goes to the point of suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists.

  

  Edmond Rostand
  • Point
  • Sincerity
  • Pessimism

• I have a constitutional weakness in which I am very easily distracted by flashing lights. If there is a TV on in the room, I can't have a conversation with you. I won't eat, I won't sleep, I'll just meld with my couch.

  

  Rachel Maddow
  • Sleep
  • Conversation
  • Weakness

• As a writer, I had learned a lot on 'Margin Call' about embracing the weaknesses of a narrative and of a project. A story always has an inherent narrative weakness.

  

  J. C. Chandor
  • Always
  • Story
  • Weakness

• There's a kind of optimism specifically within Christianity about the world - about whose side God is on. Well, I didn't have any of that in my background. I had physicality and chaos.

  

  Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • World
  • God
  • Chaos

• I have one weakness: I love meat loaf.

  

  Jackee Harry
  • Love
  • Weakness
  • Meat

• My weakness is wearing too much leopard print.

  

  Jackie Collins
  • Weakness
  • Too Much
  • Leopard

• Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me.

  

  Jack Layton
  • People
  • Great
  • Hope

• I would love for Senator Cruz, and everyone creating fear mongering and hatred, to consider creating hope, optimism and love.

  

  Mandy Patinkin
  • Hope
  • Fear
  • Hatred

• This claustrophobia was the only weakness I had. It's not my fault. It's just in my mind.

  

  Felix Baumgartner
  • Mind
  • Weakness
  • Fault

• It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations.

  

  Walter Bagehot
  • Men
  • Said
  • Weakness

• And for all my rampant technological optimism, sometimes I think I'd be more comfortable if I were regarding these transcendental events from one thousand years remove... instead of twenty.

  

  Vernor Vinge
  • Think
  • Sometimes
  • Optimism

• Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.

  

  Eckhart Tolle
  • Power
  • Strength
  • Weakness

• I think that maybe that's my weakness, in that I don't know how to do it, so I just do what I do and try to do it as passionately and as well as I can.

  

  Aaron Eckhart
  • Think
  • Know
  • Weakness

• To be loved is a strength. To love is a weakness.

  

  Zsa Zsa Gabor
  • Love
  • For Her
  • Strength

• We all have a weakness for beauty.

  

  Albert Camus
  • Beauty
  • Weakness

• I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated. … Goethe said, 'Talent is developed in privacy,' you know? And it's really true. … Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer. You're gay, you're sick, you're nervous or whatever.

  

  Marilyn Monroe
  • Famous
  • Creativity
  • Talent

• There are so many difficult things we're living through in the world today, so many horrible events, but we cannot let them stop us. No matter what happens, I feel you must move forward with optimism and not get totally sideswiped.

  

  Gloria Estefan Miami Sound Machine
  • World
  • Today
  • Stop

• You're a sick woman. In a state of physical weakness it's so much easier to function in the groove you know. It seems to hold you together.

  

  Elizabeth Goudge
  • Sick
  • Weakness
  • Groove

• In order to be discipled by others a person must have a trusting heart, one that listens even when it doesn't fully comprehend or see the end result.

  

  Ed Townsend
  • Heart
  • End
  • See

• Eww," Jack said, and then giggled. "Yeah, and a Paris Hilton doll that had an optional brain."Aphrodite raised her brow at him. "Don't go all crazy. There are some things even Paris Hilton can't buy.

  

  P. C. Cast
  • Crazy
  • Brain
  • Paris

• As a developer, it's a great feeling knowing you have made an impact. There's also a lot of responsibility that goes with that: you have to really put the city's needs first. It's not all about making money.

  

  Stephen M. Ross
  • City
  • Responsibility
  • Impact

• If I were, to pick out the most valuable personal traits of a fighter pilot, aggressiveness would rate high on the list. Time and again, I have seen aggressive action, even from a disadvantageous position, completely rout a powerful Nip formation.

  

  Charles H. MacDonald
  • Action
  • Powerful
  • Fighter

• Pessimism leads to weakness. Optimism leads to power.

  

  William James
  • Weakness
  • Optimism
  • Pessimism