William James on Controlling One’s Thoughts

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another."

- William James

by

June 7, 2014

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

– William James

bigthinkeditor Full Profile

Special Issue

Leadership masterclass: Nike, Jordan, and James Baldwin

George Raveling — the iconic leader who brought Michael Jordan to Nike — shares with Big Think a lifetime of priceless wisdom learned at the crossroads of sports and business.

14 articles

Man in glasses and a brown jacket with a serious expression; the background features a blue overlay adorned with white sports strategy symbols and a cheering crowd. It's reminiscent of a Coach Raveling masterclass, where every move is meticulously planned.

Related Content

3 signs your boss is high on “toxic positivity”

What happens when your boss decides to weaponize positivity in the workplace?

by Mita Mallick

The image features the book cover of "The Devil Emails at Midnight" by Mita Mallick alongside text reading "an excerpt from" on a purple and beige background, hinting at themes like toxic positivity within its pages.

The thought experiments that test your life, not your logic

Why some of philosophy’s strangest scenarios are more than mental games.

by Shai Tubali

A group of people in ancient attire react to shadows cast on a wall, referencing Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

The hallucinatory thoughts of the dying mind

Delirium is one of the most perplexing deathbed phenomena, exposing the gap between our cultural ideals of dying words and the reality of a disoriented mind.

by Michael Erard

Abstract image with intertwined black and white wispy lines forming a chaotic, web-like pattern on a dark background.

Pax Economica: The forgotten history of the free-trade movement

Big Think spoke with historian Marc-William Palen about the egalitarian aims of the free-trade movement in past centuries.

by Tim Brinkhof

A painting of a group of boats in a body of water.

Learn from the world's biggest thinkers.

© Copyright 2007-2026 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved.