“The bigger the unit you deal with, the hollower, the more brutal, the more mendacious is the life displayed.”

— William James

Letter to Mrs. Henry Whitman (7 June 1899), in The Letters of William James, ed. Henry James, vol. 2, p. 90 (1926)
1890s
Context: I am against bigness and greatness in all their forms, and with the invisible molecular moral forces that work from individual to individual, stealing in through the crannies of the world like so many soft rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, and yet rending the hardest monuments of man’s pride, if you give them time. The bigger the unit you deal with, the hollower, the more brutal, the more mendacious is the life displayed. So I am against all big organizations as such, national ones first and foremost; against all big successes and big results; and in favor of the eternal forces of truth which always work in the individual and immediately unsuccessful way, under-dogs always, till history comes, after they are long dead, and puts them on top. — You need take no notice of these ebullitions of spleen, which are probably quite unintelligible to anyone but myself.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The bigger the unit you deal with, the hollower, the more brutal, the more mendacious is the life displayed." by William James?

William James 246

American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist 1842–1910

Laura Amy Schlitz (1955) children's author

“I see myself more as an ambassador of the game. And I hope to bring chess to a higher level in the United States. Making bigger tournaments, more interesting events. Making it a respectable profession for young people to be able to pursue in the future.”

Maurice Ashley (1966) Chess Grandmaster

Chessville - Interviews - 20 Questions with GM Maurice Ashley http://www.chessville.com/editorials/Interviews/20Questions/Ashley.htm

“At the end of your life you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child or a parent.”

Barbara Bush (1925–2018) former First Lady of the United States

Source: Reflections: Life After the White House

“The more bosom a woman displayed, the less she wanted you to look. Openly, at least.”

Robert Jordan A Crown of Swords

Matrim Cauthon
A Crown of Swords (15 May 1996)

“It really was a brutal place, Los Angeles, less a city than a collection of hostile villages united only in their mutual suspicion of each other and a susceptibility to disasters, natural and otherwise. Fires, floods, riots and earthquakes; it was looking more and more like Armageddon-by-the-Pacific.”

Michael Nava (1954) American writer

Source: Henry Rios series of novels, The Death of Friends (1996), p.81

“There was always some kind of strain, but it was workable. The bigger you get, the more of a strain it is, because in your everyday life, you're less used to compromising. As you get bigger, you have your own way. But in a partnership you always have to compromise. … When you get into a partnership, you're not the boss. There's no boss. That makes it hard.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Interview with Jon Landau for Rolling Stone (1972); republished in The Rolling Stone Interviews: 1967-1980 (1989) edited by Peter Herbst, p. 211

“Tom is 33 years older than me. It was always a bigger deal to everyone else than it was to either of us. All a couple really needs is to have the same life philosophy. If you see things the same way, then age, race, religion-none of that comes into play. When you want and enjoy the same things, it’s more important than being born during the same presidential administration.”

Erika Jayne (1969) American singer, actress and television personality

pg. 147
Pretty Mess book (2018)

“In no other country in the world is the love of property keener or more alert than in the United States, and nowhere else does the majority display less inclination toward doctrines which in any way threaten the way property is owned.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Book Three, Chapter XXI.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Three

“Congress is a very special group of people. More than 80 percent of them [have] never left the United States. They live in their own walls. So I’m not amazed about this Russophobia which is being displayed by the Congress at the moment.”

Sergey Lavrov (1950) Russian politician and Foreign Minister

"Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov says 80% of U.S. lawmakers have never traveled abroad" https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/dec/17/sergey-lavrov/russian-foreign-minister-sergey-lavrov-says-80-us-/, Politfact, 17 December 2014

“The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live for himself alone. We realize that all life is valuable, and that we are united to all this life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship to the universe.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher

Source: The Spiritual Life (1947), p. 248

“The bigger the unit you deal with, the hollower, the more brutal, the more mendacious is the life displayed.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

William James 246

Related quotes

Related topics