Pragmatism and Pragmatic Quotes to Inspire You
Pragmatism is a philosophical approach that emphasizes practicality and the importance of real-world consequences in assessing the truth or value of beliefs, ideas, and actions.
This philosophy was an intellectual movement in the late 19th and early 20th century United States. As a movement, it favored experience over doctrine and emphasized pursuing practical, useful research projects.
The main idea of pragmatism is that knowledge is essentially related to human practice. One implication of this view is that usefulness is a criterion for knowledge. Pragmatism contrasts with views of knowledge that are merely observational or speculative.
Much of what we know today regarding psychology comes from this philosophy, especially from William James, considered the father of psychology.
Here are some notable quotes related to pragmatism:
William James:
“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”
“Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.”
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.”
John Dewey:
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
“The good man is the man who, no matter how morally unworthy he has been, is moving to become better.
“Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.”
Charles Sanders Peirce:
“In order to reason well, it is not enough to have a good mind; it must be applied.”
“The most essential point for the attainment of intellectual eminence is the possession of an imagination of unrivaled range, trained to methodize and control its creations by an habitual reference to an external standard of truth.”
“The opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate is what we mean by the truth, and the object represented in this opinion is the real.”
Richard Rorty:
“Pragmatism is, I think, a more appropriate word for my philosophy because it applies a criterion of practice to all philosophizing and because it steers philosophy clear of the sterile scholasticism that results from fancying that the business of philosophy is simply to label and sort the verbal labels of a lot of professors.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.:
“I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.”
“The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.”
John Stuart Mill:
“The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.”
“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
Theodore Roosevelt:
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
