When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the fear and hesitancy of the affluent regarding life decisions influenced by material conditions.
William James expresses concern about the anxiety of the 'better classes' who delay significant life choices, such as marriage and child-rearing, due to financial worries and a desire for aesthetic perfection. He argues that this mindset is not only impractical but also undermines the essence of manliness and spirituality, suggesting that individuals should challenge these fears and embrace life's challenges regardless of material circumstances.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming societal fears during economic downturns.
Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.
The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.
All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience, factors to which the environment and the lessons it has so far taught us must learn to bend.
The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association
As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
The world is a divine dream, from which we may presently awake to the glories and certainties of day.
The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all.
There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.
Every rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal.
We must strive to become good ancestors.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.