Free Will Quotes - Page 5

• Most of us fail to appreciate the extent to which our behavior is under situational control, because we prefer to believe that is all is internally generated. We wander around cloaked in an illusion of vulnerability, mis-armed with an arrogance of free will and rationality.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Believe, Appreciate, Arrogance

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• Shakespeare said: "There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow." Everything happens perfectly.

  Frederick Lenz

  Fall, Buddhism, Humanity

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• The impulse to take life strivingly is indestructible in the race.

  William James

  Race, Vagueness, Impulse

  William James (2015). “Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays”, p.58, 谷月社

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• You know what's wrong with humanity?... The greatest gift we were given is our free will, and we keep misusing it.

  Dean Koontz

  Humanity, Given, Knows

  Dean Koontz (2014). “The Odd Thomas Series 7-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd”, p.559, Bantam

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• There is nothing like a naturalistic orientation to dispel all these morbid thoughts of "sin" and "free will" and "moral responsibility.

  Raymond Smullyan

  Responsibility, Moral, Sin

  Jason Rosenhouse, Raymond M. Smullyan (2014). “Four Lives: A Celebration of Raymond Smullyan”, p.325, Courier Corporation

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• Which brings me to my conclusion upon Free Will and Predestination, namely - let the reader mark it - that they are identical.

  Winston Churchill

  Destiny, Mark, Conclusion

  Winston Churchill (2010). “My Early Life: 1874-1904”, p.45, Simon and Schuster

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• An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.

  Willem de Kooning

  Art, Artist, Paint

  Willem De Kooning, Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) (1969). “Willem de Kooning”

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• We suffer from the evils which we, by our own free will, inflict on ourselves and ascribe them to God, who is far from being connected with them!

  Maimonides

  Evil, Suffering, Connected

  Moses Maimonides (2016). “Guide for the perplexed”, p.1034, Moses Maimonides

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• If the concept of consciousness were to fall to science, what would happen to our sense of moral agency and free will? If conscious experience were reduced somehow to mere matter in motion, what would happen to our appreciation of love and pain and dreams and joy? If conscious human beings were just animated material objects, how could anything we do to them be right or wrong?

  Daniel Dennett

  Dream, Appreciation, Pain

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• His will cannot be neutral or 'free' to act contrary to his nature.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Contrary

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• ...what makes humanity beautiful is our free will, our individuality, our endless striving in spite of our imperfection. BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON Chapter 27 Page 214

  Dean Koontz

  Beauty, Beautiful, Moon

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• ... human free will implies God's prior decision not to tamper with the metaphysical base of that free will. It also implies man's ability to reject the persuasion God uses to influence that free will while leaving its metaphysical base intact! Persuasion, not compulsion, is what even He must rely upon! And persuasion, by its very definition, must be resistible!

  Don Richardson

  Men, Rely Upon, Decision

  Don Richardson (1984). “Eternity in Their Hearts”, Baker Publishing Group

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• The combination of foolishness in the heart and free will in the head is extremely volatile.

  John Rosemond

  Heart, Combination, Foolishness

  John Rosemond (2012). “A Family of Value”, p.210, Andrews McMeel Publishing

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• God foreknows nothing by contingency, but that He foresees, purposes, and does all things according to His immutable, eternal, and infallible will. By this thunderbolt, "Free-will" is thrown prostrate, and utterly dashed to pieces.

  Martin Luther

  Doe, Purpose, Pieces

  Martin Luther (2005). “The Bondage of the Will”, p.28, RDMc Publishing

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• So our future is in our own hands. What greater free will do we need?

  Dalai Lama

  Future, Hands, Needs

  Dalai Lama (2004). “Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection”, Snow Lion Publication

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• Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.

  Richard Bach

  Relationship, Positive, Spiritual

  Richard Bach (2012). “Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah”, p.110, Delta

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• It is only work that is done as freewill offering to humanity and to nature that does not bring with it any binding attachment.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Offering, Attachment, Humanity

  Swami Vivekananda (1964). “Complete Works”

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• The luxury to disparage freedom is the privilege of those who already possess it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Luxury, Privilege

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• All theory is against free will; all experience is for it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wisdom, Freedom, Theory

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• All the passages in the Holy Scriptures that mention assistance are they that do away with "free-will", and these are countless...For grace is needed, and the help of grace is given, because "free-will" can do nothing.

  Martin Luther

  Grace, Scripture, Helping

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• Free will is located in or near the anterior cingulate sulcus.

  Francis Crick

  Francis Crick (1994). “The astonishing hypothesis: the scientific search for the soul”

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• I once laboured hard for the free will of man, until the grace of God at length overcame me.

  Saint Augustine

  Men, Grace, Length

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• It seems a bit unfair to my relatives to be murdered in order to provide an opportunity for free will for Germans, but even putting that aside, how does free will account for cancer? Is it an opportunity of free will for tumors?

  Steven Weinberg

  Cancer, Opportunity, Order

  Steven Weinberg (2001). “Facing Up”, p.240, Harvard University Press

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• We assume that we have free will and that we make decisions, but we don't. Neurons do. We decide that this sum total driving us is a decision we have made for ourselves. But it is not.

  Rodolfo Llinas

  Decision, Neurons, Driving

  "The Electric Brain". Interview with Lauren Aguirre, www.pbs.org. October 23, 2001.

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• I have my choice: who can wish for more? Free will enables us to do everything well while imposition makes a light burden heavy.

  Samuel Richardson

  Light, Choices, Wish

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