William James, (1842-1910) American philosopher and psychologist. Quotes

There is a voice inside which speaks and says, "This is the real me!

It is only by risking... That we live at all.

Men habitually use only a small part of the powers which they possess and which they might use under appropriate circumstances.

Everyone knows that on any given day, there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. The human individual usually lives far within his limits.

He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.

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.

The thinker philosophizes as the lover loves. Even were the consequences not only useless but harmful, he must obey his impulse.

Impulse without reason is not enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift.

Every time a resolve or fine glow of feeling evaporates without bearing fruit, it is worse than a chance lost; it works to hinder future emotions from taking the normal path of discharge.

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. Try the "as if" technique.