Category: Will Power

“WHILE engaged in the composition of my ` Elements of Chemistry,’ I perceived, better than I had ever done before, the truth of an observation of Condillac, that we think only through the medium of words ; and that languages are true analytic methods. The art of reasoning is nothing more than a language well […]

“IMPURE thought, despondent, hopeless, repining, fault finding, fretful, slanderous thought, is certain to make the blood impure and fill the system with disease. ” So with certain habits of body consequent on such habits of thought, such as the habit of worry, the habit of laying undue stress on things not the most needful for […]

“BUT if having been once defeated, thou shalt say, The next time I will conquer; and then the same thing over again, be sure that in the end thou wilt be brought to such a sorry and feeble state that henceforth thou wilt not so much as know that thou art sinning; but thou wilt […]

THE underlying cause of all weakness and unhappiness in man, heredity and environment to the contrary notwithstanding, has always been, and is still, weak habit-of-thought. This is proven by the observed instances in which strong habit-of-thought has invariably made its masters superior to heredity, and to environment, and to illness, and to weakness of all […]

“WHENEVER a person wills, or, rather, professes to will, to imagine, he has in fact already imagined ; and, consequently, there can be no such thing as imaginations which are exclusively the result of a direct act of the Will.” Professor Upham. ” I am inclined to think it was his practice, when engaged in […]

I RETAIN a clear impression or image of everything at which I have looked, although the coloring of that impression is necessarily vivid in proportion to the degree of interest with which the object was regarded. I find this faculty of much use and solace to me. By its aid I can live again at […]

“SOMETHING more reliable than a mere impulse is needed to make a strong mind. Back of all must stand a strong Will, with the ability and disposition to use it. M. Marcel well says, ` The great secret of education lies in exciting and directing the Will.’ In later mental acquirements we recognize the omnipotence […]

“THE seat of the Will seems to vary with the organ through which it is manifested; to transport itself to different parti of the brain, as we may wish to recall a picture, a phrase, or a melody; to throw its force on the muscles or the intellectual processes. Like the general-in-chief, its place is […]

A DISTINGUISHED lawyer of an Eastern city relates that while engaged in an argument upon which vast issues depended he suddenly realized that he had forgotten to guard a most important point. In that hour of excitement his faculties became greatly stimulated. Decisions, authorities and precedents long since forgotten began to return to his mind. […]

“IT IS subject to the superior authority of the Ego. I yield it or I withhold it as I please ; I direct it in turn to several points ; I concentrate it upon each point as long as my Will can stand the effort.” Dictionaire Philosophique. THEORY OF CHAPTER Attention, become habituated, involves constant […]