Free-will Quotes

Man doeth this and doeth that from the good or evil of his heart; but he knows not to what end his s...

Life's no piece of cake, mind you, but the recipe's my own to fool with.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.

Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; ...

Thus he has two standpoints from which he can consider himself...: first, as belonging to the world ...

...in its practical purpose the footpath of freedom is the only one on which it is possible to make ...

This, for both Schopenhauer and Tolstoy, is the central tragedy of human life; if only men would lea...

I could not 'make' you--except by force, which would break your mind.

Our flesh shrinks from what it dreads and responds to the stimulus of what it desires by a purely re...

Zombies are familiar characters in philosophical thought experiments. They are like people in every ...

God isn't about making good things happen to you, or bad things happen to you. He's all about you ma...

Harry, life isn't simple. There is such a thing as black and white. Right and wrong. But when you're...

I think my dad was so fascinated by this idea because he realizedon some fundamental level that he w...

Liberty is not an Idea belonging to Volition, or preferring; but to the Person having the Power of d...

So saving grace, converting grace, for Augustine, is God's giving us a sovereign joy in God that tri...

So saving grace, converting grace, for Augustine, is God's giving us a sovereign joy in God that tri...

So saving grace, converting grace, for Augustine, is God's giving us a sovereign joy in God that tri...

So saving grace, converting grace, for Augustine, is God's giving us a sovereign joy in God that tri...

He who let's the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of an...

Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please.

What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of s...

You can’t change the past. You can’t even change the future, in the sense that you can only change t...

Each man lives for himself, uses his freedom to achieve his personal goals, and feels with his whole...

You say: I am not free. But I have raised and lowered my arm. Everyone understands that this illogic...

Having learnt from experiment and argument that a stone falls downwards, a man indubitably believes ...

Any good world would allow for us to have free will, yes?" he continued. "Can we agree to this point...

If we are to make progress, we must not repeat history but make new history. We must add to inherita...

When the Rabbis stated that obedience or disobedience to the commandments depends not on the will of...

When the whole world is silent,Even one voice becomes powerful.

[Research] suggests that what we think of as free will is largely an illusion: much of the time, we ...

Was this a betrayal, or was it an act of courage? Perhaps both. Neither one involves forethought: su...

The process of miraculous change is twofold.  One:  I see my error or dysfunctional pattern.  Two: I...

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of m...

Stress can alter the expression of genes, which can affect the response to stress and so on. Human b...

This is one of man's oldest riddles. How can the independence of human volition be harmonized with t...

Yet our ability to exercise free will and transcend the most extraordinary obstacles does not make t...

Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and has not only bought it, but has already spilled i...

Then why do we do so many bad things?He sighed. “Because one thing God gave us—and I’m afraid it’s a...

The idea of original sin--of guilt with no possibility of innocence, no freedom of choice, no altern...

And so from then onwards, Daniel understood that the point of this grueling sundial project was not ...

This is one of the two great labyrinths into which human minds are drawn: the question of free will ...

Human beings do not like being pushed about by gods. They may seem to, on the surface, but somewhere...

Each of us, A CEll Of Awareness... imperfect, and incomplete.Genetic blends, with uncertain ends.

[...T]he ways of God have been manifested beyond example: the sea is divided, the cloud has led the ...

God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which ...

What remains to be done must be done by you; since in order not to deprive us of our free will and s...

I shall decide what I do. If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatever you ...

We ought to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its antecedent state and as th...

Since man always remains free and since his freedom is always fragile, the kingdom of good will neve...

...our free will could convert a curse into a blessing or a blessing into a curse...To transform a c...

The student’s biggest problem was a slave mentality which had been built into him by years of carrot...

It's the deep, fundamental bedrock of hypocrisy upon which religion is founded. Consider: no creatur...

Then you must reconcile yourself to the fact that something is always hurt by any change. If you do ...

You can't take credit for your talents, but it matters that you use them. You can't really be blamed...

The problem of vindicating an omnipotent and omniscient God in the face of evil is insurmountable. T...

How can we be “free” as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by event...

You don't choose to choose what you choose in life!

Liberals tend to understand that a person can be lucky or unlucky in all matters relevant to his suc...

You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.

We are not self-caused little gods.

Losing a belief in free will has not made me fatalistic—in fact, it has increased my feelings of fre...

Becoming sensitive to the background causes of one's thoughts and feelings can—paradoxically—allow f...

What evidence could possibly be put forward to show that one could have acted differently in the pas...

So many roads. So many detours. So many choices. So many mistakes.

People who have cut their teeth on philosophical problems of rationality, knowledge, perception, fre...

So one must be resigned to being a clock that measures the passage of time, now out of order, now re...

If there's to be damnation, she had said, let it be of my choosing, not theirs. He knew a little abo...

Kill if you will, but command me nothing!’ the gunslinger roared. ‘You have forgotten the faces of t...

Educated people, of course, know that perception, cognition, language, and emotion are rooted in the...

No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent.

I do not believe any power can possess the mind of a man or woman... I believe in God-given free wil...

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

. . . it is presumptuous in me to wish to choose my path, because I cannot tell which path is best f...

The future is an ever-shifting maze of possibilities until it becomes the present. The future I have...

You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for peo...

A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.

A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational

Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confi...

A person's looking for a simple truth to live by, there it is. CHOICE. To refuse to passively accept...

Wheels have been set in motion, and they have their own pace, to which we are...condemned. Each move...

What is an anarchist? One who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for...

The illusion of self-awareness. Happy automatons, running on trivial programs. I'll bet you never gu...

The illusion of free will is so strong in my mind that I can't get away from it, but I believe it is...

You are not the happy, unthinking child you have always appeared to be, accepting everything at its ...

There's such a thing as free will, Tanner. You didn't have to go along with me, unless you want to a...

Honestly, I cannot understand what people mean when they talk about the freedom of the human will. I...

I felt that the metal of my spirit, like a bar of iron that is softened and bent by a persistent fla...

A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will's freedom...

The thoughts of a prisoner—they're not free either. They kept returning to the same things. A single...

Remember your connection with the cosmos. Remember your connection with the infinity and that rememb...

You have a perfect right to consign us all to hell, rector, but you must allow us the choice of how ...

The single word that directs a person’s fate and ultimately the fates of those she comes in contact ...

We're a government that believes in everybody having the illusion of free will.

Virtue lies in our power, and similarly so does vice; because where it is in our power to act, it is...

A man can do as he will, but not will as he will.

You can do what you will: but at each given moment of your life you can will only one determined thi...

Spinoza says that if a stone which has been projected through the air, had consciousness, it would b...

The choices we’re working with here are a block universe, where past, present and future all coexist...

That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call ‘free will’ i...