A Quote by William James

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

William James

Quote Topics

Act Chosen Equally Ethical Out Possible Quality Several Unless Whatever

Quote Author

William James
American - Philosopher
January 11, 1842 - August 26, 1910

Thinking like ethical people, dressing like ethical people, decorating our homes like ethical people makes not a damn of difference unless we also behave like ethical people.

George Monbiot

Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No man can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money; for to unfold the soul and develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with.

Wallace D. Wattles

For if as scientists we seek simplicity, then obviously we try the simplest surviving theory first, and retreat from it only when it proves false. Not this course, but any other, requires explanation. If you want to go somewhere quickly, and several alternate routes are equally likely to be open, no one asks why you take the shortest. The simplest theory is to be chosen not because it is the most likely to be true but because it is scientifically the most rewarding among equally likely alternatives. We aim at simplicity and hope for truth.

Nelson Goodman

Quality doesn't mean deep blacks and whatever tonal range. That's not quality, that's a kind of quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike someone as being sloppy-the tone range isn't right and things like that-but they're far superior to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard. But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that has something to do with what he's doing, what his mind is. It's not balancing out the sky to the sand and so forth. It's got to do with intention.

Elliott Erwitt

Of several bodies, all equally large and equally distant, that which is most brightly illuminated will appear to the eye nearest and largest.

Leonardo da Vinci

The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.

Henry David Thoreau

Unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket, unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it. unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it. when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you. there is no other way. and there never was.

Charles Bukowski

I learned the importance of a man's chair early in life. I learned that he may love several wives, embrace several cars, be true to more than one political philosophy, and be equally committed to several careers, but he will have only one comfortable chair in his life. I learned it will be an ugly chair. It will match nothing in the entire house. It will never wear out.

Erma Bombeck

I take the ethical truths to be the stable elements that emerge out of ethical progress and that are retained under further ethical progress.

Philip Kitcher

The unique personality which is the real life in me, I can not gain unless I search for the real life, the spiritual quality, in others. I am myself spiritually dead unless I reach out to the fine quality dormant in others. For it is only with the god enthroned in the innermost shrine of the other, that the god hidden in me, will consent to appear.

Felix Adler

I mean, I've never been thinking that if you're a fan you have to buy everything that somebody puts out. I mean, you've got a choice. If you don't want it, just don't buy it. It's also a reaction to YouTube and sharing of files. A lot of it is really bad sound, really low quality. So the librarian in me wants it at least to exist there so that in 20 years when I'm sitting in my rocking chair, it will still exist in the best sound quality possible, even though it only sold 1000 units or whatever. As much as I love the whole pirate kind of thing, the quality suffers.

Bjork

To reform means to shatter one form and to create another; but the two sides of this act are not always equally intended nor equally successful.

George Santayana

You can't control the quality of projects that are coming to you, so if you get several in a row that are quality, you take them.

John Travolta

A lot of artists fail when they try to act, and they flop. So when I get into acting, it's going to be to do it well, something good, something of quality. I want people to say, 'Wow, that movie' - or that show or whatever - 'turned out really well.'

Bad Bunny

I have said it on several occasions, several times from this podium, that providing a quality education for our children is high on my priority list. I will not stop now.