Q0121

William James

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The essential achievement of the will is to attend to a difficult object and hold it fast before the mind.
Thinker William James
School Pragmatism
Source The Principles of Psychology (on will)
Theme Will
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with The Principles of Psychology (on will), within the tradition of Pragmatism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of will, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In William James's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: William James. (n.d.). The essential achievement of the will is to attend to a difficult object and hold it fast before the mind. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0121

MLA: William James. “The essential achievement of the will is to….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0121.

Chicago: William James. “The essential achievement of the will is to….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0121.

Same thinker

More from William James

  1. Habit is the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent.
  2. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
  3. Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.
  4. Consciousness…does not appear to itself chopped up in bits…It is nothing jointed; it flows.
  5. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

All quotations by William James

Same theme

More on will

  1. No one errs willingly.
  2. Give what you command, and command what you will.
  3. Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.
  4. All life is suffering.
  5. Act so that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle of universal legislation.

Browse the will theme