"Any object not interesting in itself may..." - Quote by William James

“Old-fashioned determinism was what we may call hard determinism. It did not shrink from such words as fatality, bondage of the will, necessitation, and the like. Nowadays, we have a soft determinism which abhors harsh words, and, repudiating fatality, necessity, and even predetermination, says that its real name is freedom; for freedom is only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.”

“Organization and method mean much, but contagious human characters mean more in a university.”

“The difference between the first and second-best things in art absolutely seems to escape verbal definition -- it is a matter of a hair, a shade, an inward quiver of some kind -- yet what miles away in the point of preciousness!”

“The most natively interesting object to a man is his own personal self and its fortunes. We accordingly see that the moment a thing becomes connected with the fortunes of the self, it forthwith becomes an interesting thing.”

“You cannot get tired if you're interested in what you do. That's the key thing.”

“Why are women... so much more interesting to men than men are to women?”

“I consider myself to be just one among 7 billion human beings. If I were to think of myself as different from others, or as something special, it would create a barrier between us. What makes us the same is that we all want to lead happy lives and gather friends around us. And friendship is based on trust, honesty and openness.”

“When you accept yourself, the Universe accepts you.”

“A man must be in sympathy with society around him, or else, not wish to be in sympathy with it. If neither of these two, he must be wretched.”