11 quotes
In practical talk, a man's common sense means his good judgement, his freedom from eccentricity, his gumption.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
The trail of the human serpent is thus over everything.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs 'pass,' so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
We patch and tinker more than we renew. The novelty soaks in; it stains the ancient mass; but it is also tinged by what absorbs it.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
First, you know, a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
An attitude of orientation, is what the pragmatic method means. The attitude of looking away from first things, principles, "categories", supposed necessities; and of looking towards last things, fruits, consequences, facts.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
There is... a curious fascination in hearing deep things talked about, even though neither we nor the disputants understand them. We get the problematic thrill, we feel the presence of the vastness.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
No particular results then, so far, but only an attitude of orientation, is what the pragmatic method means. The attitude of looking away from first things, principles, 'categories,' supposed necessities; and of looking towards last things, fruits, consequences, facts.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
There can be no difference anywhere that doesn't make a difference elsewhere - no difference in abstract truth that doesn't express itself in a difference in concrete fact and in conduct consequent upon that fact, imposed on somebody, somehow, somewhere and somewhen.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events. Its verity is in fact an event, a process: the process namely of its verifying itself, its veri-fication. Its validity is the process of its valid-ation.
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)