Quotes About Free will

If a person did not have free will, how could he be held accountable for the bad things he did?

The pragmatic piece of James's decision is that believing in a free will feels intuitive. It is fundamental to what feeling human is all about; it is basic to being an "I." That is, right up until we find it useful or comforting to believe that uncontrollable forces determine our actions. Then we are back in "the devil made me do it" territory.

What makes the soul who it is, if not the choices the person makes while he's alive?

this determinism says that in every case the result is determined by the previous condition of the subject we are looking at. Our free will at the best is like that of Lucretius's atoms — which at quite uncertain times and places deviate in an uncertain manner from their course. the atoms can swerve so there's always the small possibility even for air molecules of not being forced to follow the determined laws. - ESSAY FOR THE ERANUS CLUB ON SCIENCE AND FREE WILL

it struck me as an operational way to define free will, in a way that allowed you to reconcile free will with determinism. The system is deterministic, but you can't say what it's going to do next.

my fate is my own, my heart remains free, not magic but wisdom reveals destiny

Well -- think about this. What if all your actions and choices, good or bad, make no difference to God? What if the pattern is pre-set? No no -- hang on -- this is a question worth struggling with. What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good? What if, for some of us, we can't get there any other way?

The possibility of evil exists from the moment that a creature is made that can love and do good because it chooses and not because it is unable to do anything else. The actuality of evil exists from the moment that that choice is exercised in the wrong direction.

Be', c'è questo Dio, il vostro Dio, che piazza un melo in mezzo al giardino e dice: Ragazzi, fate quello che volete, ma non mangiate le mele. Caso straordinario, loro addentano una mela, ed ecco che lui ti salta fuori da dietro un cespuglio gridando: Vi ho beccati, vi ho beccati!. Non avrebbe fatto molta differenza se non avessero mangiato la mela. [...] quando hai a che fare con quel tipo di dei, in trappola ci cadi sempre.

And the reason Luke is thinking about time and free will is because he believes that money is the closest human beings have ever come to crystallizing time and free will into a compact physical form. Cash. Cash is a time crystal. Cash allows you to multiply your will, and it allows you to speed up time. Cash is what defines us as a species. Nothing else in the universe has money.

And one who is just of his own free will shall not lack for happiness and he will never come to utter ruin.

There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will.

There is too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will. I must concede you the Devil. God doesn't really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We're so busy punishing ourselves.

There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will. I might concede you the Devil. God doesn't really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We're so very busy punishing ourselves.

There's such a thing as free will, Tanner. You didn't have to go along with me, unless you want to admit your brain is ruled by your dick. And I didn't get the impression you regretted any of that.

I saw immediately what they were: human technology that had become haunted, possessed by quick, gleaming cleverness. I had seen smart machines before then, but nothing with the agility and cunning of true intelligence. I knew instantly that these were a different order of machine. Some alchemy of chaos and complexity had given their minds powers of consciousness and free will.

We've managed to do without intelligent machines until now, Skade. Not because we fear them but because we know that any intelligent entity must choose its own destiny. Yet that servitor doesn't have any free will, does it? Just intelligence. The one without the other is a travesty. We've gone to war over less.]

There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny nor free will, neither path nor achievement. This is the final truth.

Rivka believed that HaShem was both all-good and all-powerful—so good that he created people, so powerful that he gave them free will. And that made evil possible. If men could not choose evil, then they were not free. Therefore, the existence of evil was proof of HaShem's great power to create those who could choose to oppose him.

I have no choice but to believe in free will" Tomlinson

Most of us assume that human beings have free will. However, . . . [we] are very much conditioned by our species, culture, family, and by the past in general. . . . It is rare for a human being to have free will. . . . (140)

the thing that "makes us human. We have minds. We make our own choices and live by them. We shape our own lives with how we behave towards others.

So it is no surprise that we cannot find free will in this isolated movement in a laboratory, if we treat it as an isolated movement.

God gives you opportunities and chances, and you make those decisions and choices. Every decision and choice I've made, I have made it.