An idea to be suggestive must come to the individual with the force of a revelation.

William James
Some Similar Quotes
  1. I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. - John Cage

  2. Each voice carries a portion of value, no matter how unpalatable or distasteful that voice may be: no one person, government, ideology, transnational, or religious institution can own and dominate the whole. - B.W. Powe

  3. The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of... - John F. Kennedy

  4. The truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas — complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse. - George F. Kennan

  5. Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn't mean it's true. - Jonah Lehrer

More Quotes By William James
  1. The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.

  2. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

  3. A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

  4. Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true, " it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if...

  5. See the exquisite contrast of the types of mind! The pragmatist clings to facts and concreteness, observes truth at its work in particular cases, and generalises. Truth, for him, becomes a class-name for all sorts of definite working-values in experience. For the rationalist it remains...

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