Richard Jefferies Quotes

I'd rather believe in my own choice and see it all go wrong than do something I'm not fully convinced of and later feel guilty about it.

I think in some ways we have allowed other people to set the agenda. Other people to define who we are.

I protest that if some great Power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and would up every morning before I got out of bed, I should instantly close with the offer.

Man may act according to that principle or inclination which for the present happens to be strongest, and yet act in a way disproportionate to, and violate his real proper nature.

I am a great believer in having the power to end your life and knowing that, in extremis, you can. But I would not want to involve anybody else in my actions if it could imperil them.

The greatest gift God gave us is the power to make decisions.

Nowadays everyone is trying to live up to the expectations of their surroundings, especially in the industry they work for, and I think that we forget that we also can decide and just say, I'm ending it because I want to.

My free will is a paradoxical partner of the power of intention.

I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely.

People will want you to behave a certain way, to make a certain choice because it reinforces the way they see the world...But you have to do what's right for you.

A man should be free to do what he wants to do, as long as it doesn't hurt others.

In order not to annul our free will, I judge it true that Fortune may be mistress of one half our actions but then even she leaves the other half, or almost, under our control.

The power of free will is developed and confirmed by increasing the number of worthy motives which influence conduct.

Liberty is obedience to the law which one has laid down for oneself

And what is it, thought I, after all! It’s only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin.

Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgement and nothing can help you escape it - that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life.

Willing sets you free: that is the true doctrine of will and freedom--thus Zarathustra instructs you.

I started with the belief that every person who came to the laboratory was free to accept or to reject the dictates of authority. This view sustains a conception of human dignity insofar as it sees in each man a capacity for choosing his own behavior. And as it turned out, many subjects did, indeed, choose to reject the experimenter's commands, providing a powerful affirmation of human ideals.

You don't get to Define me, only I can Define me, all I wish from you is to recognize my Definition.

But if it matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account." "Really?" "It did for me," said Harry. He had never told any of his children that before, and he saw the wonder in Albus's face when he said it.

I've always believed free will is a birthright. God even allows us to choose whether to be led by the divine order

No man is free who is not master of himself... Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose?

We follow the codes not because they bring gain, but because we loathe the people we would otherwise become.

Most thoughtful people would agree that morality in the absence of policing is somehow more truly moral than the kind of false morality that vanishes as soon as the police go on strike or the spy camera is switched off, whether the spy camera is a real one monitored in the police station or an imaginary one in heaven.

What is the freedom of the most free? To do what is right!