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Will (philosophy)

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Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
Most of the time man does not do what he wills, but what he has willed. Through his decisions, he always gives himself only a certain direction, in which he then moves until the next moment of reflection. We do not will continuously, we only will intermittently, piece by piece. We thus save ourselves from willing: principle of the economy of the will. But the higher man always experiences this as thoroughly immoral. ~ Otto Weininger

Volition or Will is the faculty or process by which a mind decides on and commits to a particular course of action.

Quotes

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  • We lay it down as a first principle—from which we can no more depart than from the consciousness of existence—that MAN IS FREE; and therefore stand ready to embrace whatever is fairly included in the definition of freedom.
    • Archibald Alexander, Outlines of Moral Science (New York: Charles Scribner, 1852), pp. 111–112
  • There may be some tenderness in the conscience and yet the will be a very stone; and as long as the will stands out, there is no broken heart.
    • Richard Alleine, Heaven Opened (1665), Ch. XII: "A Heart of Flesh". London: The Religious Tract Society, 1836, pp. 137–138.
  • A willing heart adds feather to the heel,
    And makes the clown a winged Mercury.
    • Joanna Baillie, De Montfort (1798), Act III, scene 2; in A Series of Plays.
  • What men want is not talent, it is purpose—in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labour.
  • Whether in active life or in letters and research, a man will always be eminent according to the vigilance with which he observes, and the acuteness with which he inquires. But this is not enough—something more is wanted—it is that resolute effort of the will which we call perseverance. I am no believer in genius without labour; but I do believe that labour, judiciously and continuously applied, becomes genius in itself.
    • Edward Bulwer-Lytton, "Speech to the Associated Societies of the University of Edinburgh" (January 18, 1854), in Speeches of Edward Lord Lytton (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1874), Vol. I, pp. 148–149.
  • He that will not when he may,
    When he will he shall have nay.
    • Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Also in The Loyal Garland. Song 28. "The fool that will not when he may, / He shall not when he wold." Blow the Winds, Heigho! Northumbrian ballad.
  • He that complies against his will,
    Is of his own opinion still,
    Which he may adhere to, yet disown,
    For reasons to himself best known.
    • Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part III (1678), Canto III, line 547. . Sometimes misreported as "is convinced" instead of "complies", according to Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 11.
  • Pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.
  • "When a man says he's willin'," said Mr. Barkis, "it's as much as to say, that man's a-waitin' for a answer."
  • Renew my will from day to day!
    Blend it with Thine! and take away
    All that now makes it hard to say,
    "Thy will be done!"
    • Charlotte Elliott, "Thy Will Be Done", stanza 7, in Hours of Sorrow (London:James Nisbet and Co., 1836), p. 131
  • Will is the immediate consciousness of the activity of the inward powers of our Nature. The immediate consciousness of an effort, an aspiration of these powers which is not yet activity, because restrained by opposing forces — this is inclination or desire; the struggle of contending forces is irresolution; the victory of one is the resolution of the will.
    • Johann Gottlieb Fichte, The Destination of Man (1799), trans. Jane Sinnett (London: Chapman Brothers, 1846), p. 17
  • My will, and the will of all finite beings, may be regarded in a twofold point of view; as a moving principle in the sensual world — for instance, of my hand, from whose movement, again, other movements follow; and as a moving principle in the transcendental world, giving rise to a series of spiritual consequences of which as yet I have no conception. In the first point of view, as a mere volition, it stands wholly in my own power; in the latter point of view, as an effective cause, it does not depend on me, but on the laws to which I am subject; to the law of nature in the world of sense, and to the supersensual law in that which is transcendental. What, then, is this law of the spiritual world which I conceive? I believe it to be this; that my will, absolutely of itself, and without the intervention of any instrument that might weaken its effect, shall act in a sphere perfectly congenial — reason upon reason, spirit upon spirit ; in a sphere to which it does not give the laws of life, of activity, of progress, but which has them in itself, therefore, upon self-active reason. But spontaneous, self-active reason is will. The law of the transcendental world must, therefore, be a Will.
    • Johann Gottlieb Fichte, The Destination of Man (1799), trans. Jane Sinnett (London: Chapman Brothers, 1846), p. 110.
  • To deny the freedom of the will is to make morality impossible.
    • James Anthony Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects: Second Series (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1871), "Calvinism", p. 3.
  • The only way of setting the Will free is to deliver it from wilfulness.
  • It is an old complaint that man has often, as it were, two souls. He observes himself, would understand himself, would please and guide himself. But, previous to this observation, while immersed in things and externals, he has a will, and often very marked features of character. These are the objective with which the contemplating subjective either agrees or disagrees by means of a new will, created in an entirely different condition of mind and soul (Gemuthslage). In case of disagreement, which of the two wills determines the character? It is quite clear, that that, which combined would have strengthened it, now chafes and disintegrates it; that the better claims on us, if they only prevent a fall into the distinctly bad, can but preserve at best a salutary absence of character.
    • Johann Friedrich Herbart, The Science of Education: Its General Principles Deduced from Its Aim and The Aesthetic Revelation of the World (1804–1806), trans. Henry M. and Emmie Felkin (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1892), p. 200.
  • The readinesse of doing doth expresse
    No other but the doer's willingnesse.
  • I had no doubt that there was madness here. How could it be otherwise in a cosmos that was ordered solely by will? It did not mean that the insane would automatically rise to the apex of the social order; their efforts would be diffused by the randomness of the impulses that drove them. But those whose extraordinary powers of will propelled them to the heights of power and rank would always be vulnerable to going further than they should. And there would be none but their equally mad rivals to restrain them.
  • Whether it was a woman whom desire brought to desperation, or whether it was a man who despaired in defiance; whether a man despaired because he got his will, or despaired because he did not get his will: each one in despairing has two wills, one that he fruitlessly tries wholly to follow and one that he fruitlessly tries wholly to avoid.
  • You cannot will to possess the spirit of Christ; that must come as His gift, but you can choose to study His life, and to imitate it.
    • Elizabeth Prentiss, Stepping Heavenward (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., 1869), p. 105
  • Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will.
    • Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.
    • Variant translations:
      • Man can do what he wants but he cannot want what he wants.
        • As quoted in The Motivated Brain : A Neurophysiological Analysis of Human Behavior (1991) by Pavel Vasilʹevich Simonov, p. 198.
  • I have known many who could not when they would, for they had not done it when they could.
  • My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
    Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores
    Of will and judgment.
  • "Akrasia" [weakness of will] in rational beings is as common as wine in France.
  • For modern man, … pride reveals itself in impatience, which is an unwillingness to bear the pain of discipline. … In effect his becomes a deification of his own will; man is not making himself like a god but is taking himself as he is and putting himself in the place of God.
  • Most of the time man does not do what he wills, but what he has willed. Through his decisions, he always gives himself only a certain direction, in which he then moves until the next moment of reflection. We do not will continuously, we only will intermittently, piece by piece. We thus save ourselves from willing: principle of the economy of the will. But the higher man always experiences this as thoroughly immoral.
    • Otto Weininger, Collected Aphorisms, as translated by Martin Dudaniec & Kevin Solway
  • There is in Shaw, as in Gurdjieff and Nietzsche, a recognition of the immense effort of Will that is necessary to express even a little freedom, that places them beside Pascal and St. Augustine as religious thinkers. Their view is saved from pessimism only by its mystical recognition of the possibilities of pure Will, freed from the entanglements of automatism.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

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Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 871-82.
  • The commander of the forces of a large State may be carried off, but the will of even a common man cannot be taken from him.
  • There is nothing good or evil save in the will.
  • Der Mensch kann was er soll; und wenn er sagt er kann nicht, so will er nicht.
    • A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not.
    • Johann Gottlieb Fichte, letter (1791).
  • Aber wer fest auf dem Sinne beharrt, der bildet die Welt sich.
  • All theory is against the freedom of the will, all experience for it.
  • The star of the unconquered will,
    He rises in my breast,
    Serene, and resolute, and still,
    And calm, and self-possessed.
  • Will without power is like children playing at soldiers.
    • Quoted by Macaulay from The Rovers, Act IV. Found in Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin.
  • Tu si animum vicisti potius quam animus te est quod gaudias.
    • If you have overcome your inclination and not been overcome by it, you have reason to rejoice.
    • Plautus, Trinummus, II. 9.
  • And binding nature fast in fate,
    Left free the human will.
  • We sought therefore to amend our will, and not to suffer it through despite to languish long time in error.
    • Seneca, Of Benefits, Book V, Chapter XXV, Epigram 67.
  • All
    Life needs for life is possible to will.

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

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Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert's Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
  • The true servants of God are not solicitous that He should order them to do what they desire to do, but that they may desire to do what He orders them to do.
  • Do not let the loud utterances of your own wills anticipate, nor drown, the still, small voice in which God speaks. Bridle impatience till He does. If you cannot hear His whisper, wait till you do. Take care of running before you are sent. Keep your wills in equipoise till God's hand gives the impulse and direction.
  • My will, not Thine be done, turned Paradise into a desert. "Thy will, not mine be done," turned the desert into Paradise, and made Gethsemane the gate of heaven.
  • Want of will causes paralysis of every faculty. In spiritual things man is utterly unable because resolvedly unwilling.
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