The mind, in short, works on the data it receives very much as the sculptor works on his block of stone.
William JamesEvery way of classifying a thing is but a way of handling it for some particular purpose.
William JamesThe greatest empiricists among us are only empiricists on reflection: when left to their instincts, they dogmatize like infallible popes.
William JamesOf course, this has its good side as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so may separate drinks, so we become saints in the moral, and authorities and experts in the practical and scientific spheres, by so many separate acts and hours of work. Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he may safely leave the final result to itself.
William James