Genius in truth means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

More from William James

• A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
• I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are impossible.
• The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.
• Accept loss forever
• A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.