The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1879-1896)

Their wordsThere is no possible point of view from which the world can appear an absolutely single fact.

Their wordsReligious fermentation is always a symptom of the intellectual vigor of a society; and it is only when they forget that they are hypotheses and put on rationalistic and authoritative pretensions, that our faiths do harm.

Their wordsThe thesis I defend is, briefly stated, this: Our passional nature not only lawfully may, but must, decide an option between propositions, whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds; for to say, under such circumstances, "Do not decide, but leave the question open," is itself a passional decision,—just like deciding yes or no,—and is attended with the same risk of losing the truth.

Their wordsI live, to be sure, by the practical faith that we must go on experiencing and thinking over our experience, for only thus can our opinions grow more true; but to hold any one of them—I absolutely do not care which—as if it never could be reinterpretable or corrigible, I believe to be a tremendously mistaken attitude, and I think that the whole history of philosophy will bear me out.

Their wordsOur errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive nervousness on their behalf.

Their wordsThere are, then, cases where a fact cannot come at all unless a preliminary faith exists in its coming.

Their wordsScepticism, then, is not avoidance of option; it is option of a certain particular kind of risk.

Their wordsGod himself, in short, may draw vital strength and increase of very being from our fidelity.

Their wordsBelieve that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

Their wordsIn other words, our first act of freedom, if we are free, ought in all inward propriety to be to affirm that we are free.

Their wordsI see no escape whatever from this pessimistic conclusion, if, being determinists, our judgment of regret is to be allowed to stand at all.

Their wordsAnd if I still wish to think of the world as a totality, it lets me feel that a world with a chance in it of being altogether good, even if the chance never come to pass, is better than a world with no such chance at all.

Their wordsIn other words, there can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and said his say.

Their wordsFor this reason the strenuous type of character will on the battle-field of human history always outwear the easy-going type, and religion will drive irreligion to the wall.

Their wordsThe mutations of societies, then, from generation to generation, are in the main due directly or indirectly to the acts or the example of individuals whose genius was so adapted to the receptivities of the moment, or whose accidental position of authority was so critical that they became ferments, initiators of movement, setters of precedent or fashion, centres of corruption, or destroyers of other persons, whose gifts, had they had free play, would have led society in another direction.

Their wordsAll that I object to is that he should think the mere size of a difference is capable of deciding whether that difference be or be not a fit subject for philosophic study.

Their wordsHegel's philosophy mingles mountain-loads of corruption with its scanty merits, and must, now that it has become quasi-official, make ready to defend itself as well as to attack others.

Their wordsAny one will renovate his science who will steadily look after the irregular phenomena.

Their wordsIn the trances of this medium, I cannot resist the conviction that knowledge appears which she has never gained by the ordinary waking use of her eyes and ears and wits.