Q0110
“Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create…” — William James (The Will to Believe)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: The Will to Believe. Theme: knowledge.
English
Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to The Will to Believe and files it under Pragmatism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About William James
William James (1842–1910) was the Harvard psychologist-philosopher who popularized pragmatism and pioneered scientific psychology in America. Brother of novelist Henry James, he trained in medicine and wrote The Principles of Psychology and The Varieties of Religious Experience.
Interpretation
James is describing a case where the belief helps produce what it asserts. His argument in The Will to Believe is that some propositions are such that believing them makes them more likely to be true — a person convinced their efforts matter behaves in ways that make them matter. He restricts the claim to genuine options that are forced, living, and momentous, and he does not extend it to matters decidable by evidence.
Why it matters
It is narrower than it is quoted as being: it licenses commitment where evidence cannot settle the question, not where it can.
Concepts in this quote
- Knowledge
- Knowledge is the philosophical study of what we can justifiably claim to know—and where certainty ends.
- Life
- Philosophy quotes about life ask what makes a life good, meaningful, or worth examining—questions that drive ethics, religion, and everyday decision.
- Action
- Action concerns agency: what it is to do something intentionally, and how thought becomes practice.
How to cite this quotation
APA: William James. (n.d.). Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0110
MLA: William James. “Believe that life is worth living, and your….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0110.
Chicago: William James. “Believe that life is worth living, and your….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0110.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “Believe that life is worth living, and your…”?
The passage is attributed to William James, The Will to Believe. The archive attributes this English wording to The Will to Believe and files it under Pragmatism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does William James mean by knowledge?
Epistemology asks whether knowledge is justified true belief, reliable tracking of the world, or something else; it also asks how perception, testimony, memory, and reason contribute. This passage enters that discussion through knowledge, life, action.