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Quotes About Free will

It is certainly not the least charm of a theory that it is refutable; it is precisely thereby that it attracts the more subtle minds. It seems that the hundred-times-refuted theory of the free will owes its persistence to this charm alone; some one is always appearing who feels himself strong enough to refute it.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Today we no longer have any pity for the concept of free will: we know only too well what it really is — the foulest of all theologians' artifices, aimed at making mankind responsible in their sense, that is, dependent upon them. Here I simply supply the psychology of all making responsible.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Erasmus argued that the father of the Reformation was wrong—that man does have free will.
~ G.J. Meyer
Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
~ Epictetus
Only the wise know just where predestination ends and free will begins. Meanwhile, you must keep on doing your best, according to your own clearest understanding. you must long for freedom as the drowning man longs for air. Without sincere longing, you will never find God.
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
~ John Adams
The Prince to a slightly more upbeat view of human action. In order "not to rule out our free will," he arrives at a formula by which Fortune is "the arbiter of half the things we do, leaving the other half or so to be controlled by ourselves.
~ Ross King
Freedom is such a gift.
~ Ryan Gosling
Free will: Either God partially controls our free wills, or God entirely controls our free wills, but I guarantee you that we don't always have control of our free wills.
~ Ryan Pack
Happiness is only attained by the free will agreeing in its freedom to accord with the will of God.
~ Sabine Baring-Gould
Meditations 9.40. "But those are things the gods left up to me," protests one voice, to which another responds, "And what makes you think the gods don't care about what's up to us?
~ Marcus Aurelius
El libre albedrio de mi prójimo es igualmente indiferente a mi libre albedrio como su soplo y su carne. Puesto que, aunque en realidad unos nacimos para los otros, la recta razón de cada uno posee su propia independencia; de no ser así la maldad del prójimo vendría a ser un mal para mi. Pero Dios no lo ha decretado así, por que de lo contrario estaría en manos de otro el que yo fuera desgraciado.
~ Marcus Aurelius
The answer can only be that God has given Adam free will, and therefore Adam may do things that God Himself cannot anticipate in advance.
~ Margaret Atwood
We cannot unweave, and remake. For chance and choice happen. They coincide, they coalesce, they mix, and then their joint outcome grows as hard and as fixed as cement. Like a fossil in stone, it hardens, in its own indissoluble, immutable shape.
~ Margaret Drabble
Mary Beth considered the matter for a long time, and then explained in her simple straightforward manner that the future wasn't predetermined, it was merely predictable.
~ Anne Rice
I believe in Free Will, the Force Almighty by which we conduct ourselves as if we were the sons and daughters of a just and wise God, even if there is no such Supreme Being. And by free will, we can choose to do good on this earth, no
~ Anne Rice
Other methods of influence—persuasion, bribery, or charismatic appeals—are push strategies. Story is a pull strategy. If your story is good enough, people—of their own free will—come to the conclusion they can trust you and the message you bring.
~ Annette Simmons
there is a great debate in Kentucky, south of us, near Tennessee, between those who believe in free will and those who hold with predestination. I have always believed I was free.
~ Sena Jeter Naslund
Do you know of the uncertainty principle, Marjorie?" "I am educated," she snorted, very much annoyed with him. "Then you know that with very small things, we cannot both know where they are and what they are doing. The act of observing them always changes what they are doing. Perhaps God does not look at us individually because to do so would interrupt our work, interfere with our free will….
~ Sheri S. Tepper
Because I cursed him to it. (Acheron) Be glad I'm not physically there or I'd slap you upside the head. You know how free will works, so stop the whining and get off the cross. Someone needs the wood. (Savitar)
~ Sherrilyn Kenyon
Don't give me that pseudo quasi psychobabble bullshit, Ash. I'm tired, I had my ass kicked, I'm still worried about Cassandra, Erik, and Chris, and I really feel like shit. Just once in eternity, answer one fucking question. (Wulf) I will not tamper with free will or fate, Wulf. Not for you, not for anything. There is no power on this earth or beyond that could make me do such a thing. (Acheron)
~ Sherrilyn Kenyon
But if fate won't be denied...if it's set, how could there be infinite possibilities? (Kat) Only certain aspects are fated. The outcome isn't. It was fated that Sin would loose his godhood. The means and what followed were determined by free will. Free will is that one scary variable that sets so much into motion that no one, not even I, have control over. (Acheron)
~ Sherrilyn Kenyon
Its a matter of free will. Decisions made at the wrong or right time, for the wrong or right reasons.
~ Sherrilyn Kenyon
I fall down on the side of free will, simply because if you look at where I came from, and what I was able to do in my life, what was able to happen.
~ Dean Koontz