93 Will Quotes

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.

There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

A man is an artist only at certain moments, by an effort of will. Objects have the same appearance for everybody.

Neither the few nor the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation.

It is our will That thus enchains us to permitted ill. We might be otherwise, we might be all We dream of happy, high, majestical. Where is the love, beauty and truth we seek, But in our mind? and if we were not weak, Should we be less in deed than in desire?

The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.

There can be no Good Will. Will is always Evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness.

Once a man's will is set, he need no longer rely on others or expect anything from the world. His vision encompasses Heaven and earth, past and present, and the tranquility of his heart is undisturbed.

What is important in a leader is a resolute will and determination. A man may be versatile and learned, but if he lacks resoluteness and determination, of what use will he be?

There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt. Love is the law, love under will.

Broad based upon her people's will, And compassed by the inviolate sea.

Determination is the wake-up call to the human will.

Most true is it that 'beauty is in the eye of the gazer.' My master's colourless, olive face, square, massive brow, broad and jetty eyebrows, deep eyes, strong features, firm, grim mouth, - all energy, decision, will, - were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me; they were full of an interest, an influence that quite mastered me, - that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his. I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously arrived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.

Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? 'What sinews are those?' - A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised, careful resolutions; unerring decisions.

Two principles we should always have ready - that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.

The will of man is his happiness.

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

Although you perform many works, if you do not deny your will and submit yourself, losing all solicitude about yourself and your affairs, you will not make progress.

War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.

There is no better motto which it [culture] can have than these words of Bishop Wilson, 'To make reason and the will of God prevail.'

If Nature is against us, we shall fight Nature, and make it obey.

When you locate good in yourself, approve of it with determination. When you locate evil in yourself, despise it as something detestable.

Life and death, union and separation, follow hard upon one another. Nothing is steadfast but the will, nothing endures but one's achieve-ments. These alone count in life.

Once the will is resolved, one's spirit is strengthened. Even a peasant's will is hard to deny, but a samurai of resolute will can sway ten thou-sand men.

His first conception must evidently be a frantic spasm, formless, insane, not to be classed as an articulate thought. Yet, if he develops the faculties of his mind, the more he knows of it the more he sees that its nature is identical with his own whenever comparision is possible. The True Will is thus both determined by its equations, and free because those equation are simply its own name, spelt out fully. His sense of being under bondage comes from his inability to read it; his sense that evil exists to thwart him arises when he begins to learn to read, reads wrong, and is obstinate that his error is an improvement.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down; It may be that we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are - One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Never acknowledge the limitations of man. Smash all boundaries! Deny whatever your eyes see. Die every moment, but say: 'Death does not exist.'

A character is a completely fashioned will. (vollkommen gebildeter Wille).

First, then, a woman will or won't, depend on 't; If she will do 't, she will; and there 's an end on 't. But if she won't, since safe and sound your trust is, Fear is affront, and jealousy injustice.

To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will to live.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. The study of this Book is forbidden. It is wise to destroy this copy after the first reading. Whosoever disregards this does so at his own risk and peril. These are most dire.

There are no incurable diseases - only the lack of will. There are no worthless herbs - only the lack of knowledge.

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'Thy will be done.'

'But what of the poor Ghosts who never get into the omnibus at all?' ' Everyone who wishes it does. Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell choose it. ... No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock, it is opened.'

In oratory the will must predominate.

I will be what I want. But I will have to want what I'll be. Success is in having success, not conditions for success.

Die Leugner des Zufalls. - 'Kein Sieger glaubt an den Zufall.'

Who can attain to anything great if he does not feel in himself the force and will to inflict great pain? The ability to suffer is a small matter: in that line, weak women and even slaves often attain masterliness. But not to perish from internal distress and doubt when one inflicts great suffering and hears the cry of it - that is great, that belongs to greatness.

Hoheres als alle Versohnung muss der Wille wollen, welcher der Wille zur Macht ist.

O meine Bruder, ich weihe und weise euch zu einem neuen Adel: ihr sollt mir Zeuger und Zuchter werden und Saemanner der Zukunft, - wahrlich, nicht zu einem Adel, den ihr kaufen konntet gleich den Kramern und mit Kramer-Golde: denn wenig Wert hat alles, was seinen Preis hat. Nicht, woher ihr kommt, mache euch furderhin eure Ehre, sondern wohin ihr geht! Euer Wille und euer Fu?, der uber euch selber hinaus will, - das mache eure neue Ehre!

What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome.

The God that Paul invented for himself, a God who 'reduced to absurdity' 'the wisdom of this world' (especially the two great enemies of superstition, philology and medicine), is in truth only an indication of Paul's resolute determination to accomplish that very thing himself: to give one's own will the name of God, Torah - that is essentially Jewish.

Women have, commonly, a very positive moral sense; that which they will, is right; that which they reject, is wrong; and their will, in most cases, ends by settling the moral.

To array a man's will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine.

Morality is thus the relation of actions to the autonomy of the will, that is, to a possible giving of universal law through its maxims. An action that can coexist with the autonomy of the will is permitted; one that does not accord with it is forbidden. A will whose maxims necessarily harmonize with the laws of autonomy is a holy, absolutely good will. The dependence upon the principle of autonomy of a will that is not absolutely good (moral necessitation) is obligation. This, accordingly, cannot be attributed to a holy being. The objective of an action from obligation is called duty.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

I want to seize fate by the throat.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

God does not exist to to do our will. We exist to do His.

Our dreams of bringing the whole of human history under the control of the human will are ironically refuted by the fact that no group of idealists can easily move the pattern of history toward the desired goal of peace and justice. The recalcitrant forces in the historical drama have a power and persistence beyond our reckoning.

We disparage reason. But all the time it's what we're most concerned with. There's will as motor and there's will as brakes. Reason is, I suppose, the steering gear.

All the several pleas and excuses, which protect the committer of a forbidden act from the punishment which is otherwise annexed thereto, may be reduced to this single consideration, the want or defect of will. An involuntary act, as it has no claim to merit, so neither can it induce any guilt: the concurrence of the will, when it has its choice either to do or to avoid the fact in question, being the only thing that renders human actions either praiseworthy or culpable. Indeed, to make a complete crime, cognizable by human laws, there must be both a will and an act.

NEVER GIVE A INCH!

''a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will'8.23

This took me completely by surprise. Since July 20, 1944, I had not spoken to Hitler at all except at some large gathering. ... I had never received any hint on the subject from anyone else.... I assumed that Hitler had nominated me because he wished to clear the way to enable an officer of the Armed Forces to put an end to the war. That this assumption was incorrect I did not find out until the winter of 1945-46 in Nuremberg, when for the first time I heard the provisions of Hitler's will.... When I read the signal I did not for a moment doubt that it was my duty to accept the task ... it had been my constant fear that the absence of any central authority would lead to chaos and the senseless and purposeless sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives ... I realized ... that the darkest moment in any fighting man's life, the moment when he must surrender unconditionally, was at hand. I realized, too, that my name would remain forever associated with the act and that hatred and distortion of facts would continue to try and besmirch my honor. But duty demanded that I pay no attention to any such considerations. My policy was simple - to try and save as many lives as I could ...

Love and Will (1969)