William James quote about idea from The Varieties of Religious Experience - An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of a revelation.
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An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of a revelation.
 William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). copy citation

Context

“Living up to [our religious] ideas will do anything for us that can be done.» And this in spite of the actual fact that the popular Christianity does absolutely [pg 113] nothing, or did nothing until mind-cure came to the rescue.55
An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of a revelation. The mind-cure with its gospel of healthy-mindedness has come as a revelation to many whose hearts the church Christianity had left hardened. It has let loose their springs of higher life. [pg 114] In what can the originality of any religious movement consist, save in finding a channel, until then sealed up, through which those springs may be set free in some group of human beings?” source

Meaning and analysis

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