Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James
“'The true,' to put it very briefly, is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as 'the right' is only the expedient in the way of our behaving.”
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, Lecture VI (Project Gutenberg text)
James's most quoted and most criticized definition, which he immediately qualifies as expedient in the long run and on the whole.
Citation: "'The true,' to put it very briefly, is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as 'the right' is only the expedient in the way of our behaving." — William James, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, Lecture VI (Project Gutenberg text). (id james-pragmatism-q7)
Portrait: William James by Alice M. Boughton, c. 1907, platinum print, from the National Portrait Gallery - NPG-NPG 87 37James-000001 (cropped), Alice Boughton, Public domain.
