Proverbs commonly said to be Chinese Proverbs commonly said to be Chinese In English, various phrases are used and claimed to be of Chinese origin – "..., as they say in China" or "An ancient Chinese proverb says...", and may be specifically attributed to Confucius. Chinese has influenced English in various ways, and some such phrases have clear Chinese origins, while in other cases the attribution to Chinese is demonstrably false, and in other cases the status is less clear. Notable examples include: Other examples include phrases contained in fortune cookies, or sayings in the same style; fortune cookies are of Japanese American origin, and the
Palace of the Babies William James's doctrine of the will to believe. "Between dogmatic belief and dogmatic disbelief," Bates writes, "James had cleared the ground for precursive faith, a willingness to believe. It was this position that Stevens occupied until about 1940, when he adopted a more active posture of voluntary or willed belief." There are two questionable suggestions here. One is that the more active posture is not implied by James's will-to-believe doctrine. The other is that "precursive faith" is leading Stevens back to the beliefs of the babies. Stevens wants an object of belief that is informed by poetic imagination, and he