If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you mustn't seek to show that no crows are; it is enough if you prove one single crow to be white.
William JamesIn order to disprove the assertion that all crows are black, one white crow is sufficient.
William JamesIt is only in the lonely emergencies of life that our creed is tested: then routine maxims fail, and we fall back on our gods.
William JamesMillions of items in the outward order are present to my senses which never properly enter into my experience. Why? Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind --without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos.
William James