Quotes About Volition

Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.

Perhaps he was conscious of somewhere within him the two severed wireends of volition and sentience lying, not touching now, waiting to touch, to knit anew so that he could move.

The more details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.

We can make our own choices. We get to choose how we react to all that happens to us.

Though Napoleon at that time, in 1812, was more convinced than ever that it depended on him, verser (ou ne pas verser) le sang de ses peuples1—as Alexander expressed it in the last letter he wrote him—he had never been so much in the grip of inevitable laws, which compelled him, while thinking that he was acting on his own volition, to perform for the swarm-life—that is to say for history—whatever had to be performed.

A man can do all things if he but wills them.

He was free, free for everything, free to act like an animal or like a machine.

I knew it like destiny, and at the same time, I knew it as choice.

Die Freiheit des Menschen liegt nicht darin, dass er tun kann, was er will, sondern dass er nicht tun muss, was er nicht will.

Cuando hay que hacer lo contrario de mi voluntad, no lo hago, ocurra lo que ocurra; tampoco hago mi voluntad, porque soy débil. Me abstengo de actuar: dado que toda mi debilidad es para la acción, toda mi fuerza es negativa, y todos mis pecados son de omisión, raramente de comisión.

sé concebir qué moralidad puede resultar de sus efectos. Ceder a la fuerza es un acto de necesidad y no de voluntad; cuando más es un acto de prudencia.

He visto que para obrar el bien con placer era preciso que actuase libremente, sin coacción, y que para privarme de toda la dulzura de una buena obra bastaba con que se convirtiera en un deber para mí.

He is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will.

You were free to choose enslavement, but the choice was a free one only if you knew what your alternatives were.

This is her home now...of her own free will.

you are the only person responsible for your choice

What you have to decide is whether you should do something, not whether you can do it.

How is there freedom to choose if one does not learn how to choose?

Marathe shrugged. 'Us, we will force nothing on U.S.A. persons in their warm homes. We will make only available. Entertainment. There will be then some choosing, to partake or choose not to.

That's the difference between irony and sarcasm. Irony can be spontaneous, while sarcasm requires volition. You have to create sarcasm.

Crow shrugged. "What is death? The loss of a body? The loss of the animating spark? If that's the case, I am dead. "Or is life the persistence of memory and emotion, volition and desire?" Crow went on, as if in a debate with himself. "If that's the case, I am very much alive.

Choice is a matter of selection. Decision is a matter of direction.

The range of choice open to the individual is not the decisive factor in determining the degree of human freedom, but what can be chosen and what is chosen by the individual. The