"Science can tell us what exists; but..." - Quote by William James
Science can tell us what exists; but to compare the worths, both of what exists and of what does not exist, we must consult not science, but what Pascal calls our heart.
More by William James
“Every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.”
“Our 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.”
“Any object not interesting in itself may become interesting through becoming associated with an object in which an interest already exists. The two associated objects grow, as it were, together; the interesting portion sheds its quality over the whole; and thus things not interesting in their own right borrow an interest which becomes as real and as strong as that of any natively interesting thing.”
More on Science
“The Governor was strong uponThe Regulation Act:The Doctor said that Death was butA scientific fact:And twice a day the Chaplain called,And left a little tract.”
“There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.”
“Everything I eat has been proved by some doctor or other to be a deadly poison, and everything I don't eat has been proved to be indispensable for life. But I go marching on.”
More on Heart
“My beloved grows right out of my own heart. How much more union can there be.”
“And of course, the brain is not responsible for any of the sensations at all. The correct view is that the seat and source of sensation is the region of the heart.”
“The hardest metal yields to sufficient heat. Even so must the hardest heart melt before sufficiency of the heat of non- violence. And there is no limit to the capacity of non-violence to generate heat.”