CIRCUMSCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC – William James
Now in these lectures I propose to ignore the institutional branch entirely … and to confine myself as far as I can to personal religion pure and simple.
SAINTLINESS – The Varieties of Religious Experience
Speaking generally, our moral and practical attitude, at any given time, is always a resultant of two sets of forces within us, impulses pushing us one way and obstructions and inhibitions holding us back. “Yes! yes!” say the impulses; “No! no!” say the inhibitions.
THE SICK SOUL – The Varieties of Religious Experience
With such relations between religion and happiness, it is perhaps not surprising that men come to regard the happiness which a religious belief affords as a proof of its truth. If a creed makes a man feel happy, he almost inevitably adopts it.
REALITY OF THE UNSEEN – Varieties of Religious Experience
Like all positive affections of consciousness, the sense of reality has its negative counterpart in the shape of a feeling of unreality by which persons may be haunted
THE DIVIDED SELF, AND THE PROCESS OF ITS UNIFICATION
These examples may suffice to acquaint us in a general way with the phenomenon technically called “Conversion.”
RELIGION OF HEALTHY-MINDEDNESS – William James
How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness, is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.