Quotes About Choice

So if you like doing something, do it regularly; if you don't like doing something, make a habit of doing something different.

I have learned to see that whatever comes about is nothing to me if it lies beyond the sphere of choice.

Be discriminating about what images and ideas you permit into your mind. If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.

I want to die, even though I don't have to.

When you find your direction, check to make sure that it is the right one.

the good of man, and likewise his ill, lies in how he exercises his choice, while everything else is nothing to us

Every circumstance comes with two handles, which one of which you can hold it, while with the other conditions are insupportable.

Only consider at what price you sell your own will: if for no other reason, at least for this, that you sell it not for a small sum.

grammar will tell you how to write; but whether to write or not, grammar will not tell.

Remember that you are an actor in a drama of such sort as the author chooses, - if short, then in a short one; if long, then in a long one. If it be his pleasure that you should enact a poor man, see that you act it well; or a cripple, or a ruler, or a private citizen. For this is your business, to act well the given part; but to choose it, belongs to another.

Freedom, you see, is having events go in accordance with our will, never contrary to it.

Destroy desire completely for the present. For if you desire anything which is not in our power, you must be unfortunate

the same thing, really, that we all want: to live in peace, to be happy, to do as we like and never be foiled or forced to act against our wishes.

We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.

From this instant, then, choose to act like the worthy and capable person you are. Follow unwaveringly what reason tells you is the best course.

Is there smoke in the house? If it's not suffocating, I will stay indoors; if it proves too much, I'll leave. Always remember – the door is open.

According to him the faculty of choice distinguishes humans from irrational animals. We can make considered choices among 'impressions' or 'appearances', meaning anything that comes within range of our senses, together with whatever thoughts and feelings these sensations evoke. While all animals are subject to impressions, those of humans differ by virtue of the fact that we possess the power of language and reason (both faculties expressed by the single word logos).

Doesn't it seem to you that acting against one's will, under protest and compulsion, is tantamount to being a slave?

Some things are up to us and some are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions—in short, whatever is our own doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing. The things that are up to us are by nature free, unhindered, and unimpeded; the things that are not up to us are weak, enslaved, hindered, not our own.

Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave.

there is but one way to freedom - to despise what is not in our power.

Most of what passes for legitimate entertainment is inferior or foolish and only caters to or exploits people's weakness. If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.

Where does the good lie? 'In the will.' And evil? 'Also in the will.' And things neither good nor bad – '… lie in whatever is external to the will.

not even God has the power of coercion over us'.