Will (philosophy)

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"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."

"Will localizes us; thought universalizes us."

"A willing heart adds feather to the heel, And makes the clown a winged Mercury."

"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."

"He that will not when he may, When he will he shall have nay."

"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."

"Pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect."

"Barkis is willin'!"

"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!""

"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."

"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."

"To deny the freedom of the will is to make morality impossible."

"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."

"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."

"Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will."

"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."

"That what he will he does, and does so much That proof is call'd impossibility."

""Akrasia" [weakness of will] in rational beings is as common as wine in France."

"Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours, to make them thine."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"A boy's will is the wind's will."

"Will without power is like children playing at soldiers."

"Tu si animum vicisti potius quam animus te est quod gaudias."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"All Life needs for life is possible to will."