All religions begin with the cry Help.
Interpretation
Religions stem from humanity's inherent need for assistance and guidance in times of hardship.
William James suggests that the root of all religions lies in the universal human experience of seeking help and support. This 'cry for help' reflects a deep existential crisis, prompting individuals to turn to a higher power or spiritual beliefs in search of solace and meaning during difficult times.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of religion in crisis management, you could use this quote to highlight how spirituality often begins with a plea for assistance.
Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.
The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.
All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience, factors to which the environment and the lessons it has so far taught us must learn to bend.
The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association
As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
Unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just.
In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything else gives them too much credit.
Well, if Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear.
A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.
We should show life neither as it is or as it ought to be, but only as we see it in our dreams.
It is the individual's task to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet. All collective identities . . . interfere with the fulfillment of this task. Such collective identities are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible. . . .
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