All religions begin with the cry Help.
Interpretation
Religions stem from humanity's inherent need for assistance and guidance in times of hardship.
William James suggests that the root of all religions lies in the universal human experience of seeking help and support. This 'cry for help' reflects a deep existential crisis, prompting individuals to turn to a higher power or spiritual beliefs in search of solace and meaning during difficult times.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of religion in crisis management, you could use this quote to highlight how spirituality often begins with a plea for assistance.
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.
Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.
On the road halfway between faith and criticism stands the inn of reason. Reason is faith in what can be understood without faith, but it's still a faith, since to understand presupposes that there's something understandable.
The worst thing about movie-making is that it's like life: nobody can go back to correct the mistakes.
If you think about making a city that is much more porous, many accessible spaces, that is a political position, because you don't fortify, you open it up so that many people can use it.
...In another time, What cannot be seen will define us, and we shall be prompted To say that language is error, and all things are wronged By representation. The self, we shall say, can never be Seen with a disguise, and never be seen without one.
She - philosophy is equally helpful to the rich and poor: neglect her, and she equally harms the young and old.
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