“There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.”

—  William James

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference." by William James?
William James photo
William James 246
American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist 1842–1910

Related quotes

Ahmet Davutoğlu photo

“There is a 360-degree difference between our understanding of Islam and that of IS.”

Ahmet Davutoğlu (1959) Turkish politician

Oct. 14, 2016 [Tremblay, Pinar, November 1, 2015, Forget online dating, now the Turkish government will find you a spouse, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/turkey-election-pledges-davutoglu-offers-matchmaking.html, Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East]

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“We boil at different degrees.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Eloquence
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“At different degrees, everything is pathology, except for indifference.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Pierre Bourdieu photo

“Every established order tends to produce (to very different degrees with different means) the naturalization of its own arbitrariness.”

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher

Source: Equisse d'une Théorie de la Pratique (1977), p. 164; as cited in: Jan E. M. Houben (1996) Ideology and Status of Sanskrit, p. 190

James Madison photo

“From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties. The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Federalist No. 10
1780s, Federalist Papers (1787–1788)

“If you have 1,000 people, you have 1,000 geniuses. They’re just different kinds of genius and a different degree of intensity.”

Brunello Cucinelli (1953) Italian entrepreneur and philanthropist

Source: 10 Productivity Tips From the King of Cashmere, Brunello Cucinelli https://medium.com/@om/10-productivity-tips-from-the-king-of-cashmere-brunello-cucinelli-79c9cf74d9de Medium, Om Malik, April 27, 2015

Alfred Horsley Hinton photo

“The different degree of light interference between blue and red also affords a power which we may be glad to avail ourselves, in some cases using the red where a very marked degree of lightening is desired, or blue where only a trifling difference is needed.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton (1863–1908) British photographer

Source: Part II : Practical Pictorial Photography, Fidelity to nature and justifiable untruth, p. 21

Jim Henson photo

“Many creative people have a certain degree of dissatisfaction with the status quo, the established way. If you look at things differently, you are thought of as 'different.' In turn, 'different' people are thought to be 'mad.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Interview with The Boston Globe (1989)

“We all have a Monster within; the difference is in degree, not in kind.”

Douglas Preston (1956) American author

Source: The Monster of Florence

Albert Jay Nock photo

“As far back as one can follow the run of civilization, it presents two fundamentally different types of political organization. This difference is not one of degree, but of kind.”

Albert Jay Nock (1870–1945) American journalist

Source: Our Enemy, the State (1935), p. 35
Context: As far back as one can follow the run of civilization, it presents two fundamentally different types of political organization. This difference is not one of degree, but of kind. It does not do to take the one type as merely marking a lower order of civilization and the other a higher; they are commonly so taken, but erroneously. Still less does it do to classify both as species of the same genus — to classify both under the generic name of "government," though this also, until very lately, has been done, and has always led to confusion and misunderstanding.
A good understanding of this error and its effects is supplied by Thomas Paine. At the outset of his pamphlet called Common Sense, Paine draws a distinction between society and government. While society in any state is a blessing, he says, "government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." In another place, he speaks of government as "a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world."

Related topics