John Irving Quotes

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.

Everythings a choice. Nobody's born good. Nobody's born evil. It's always a choice.

Eve didn't choose to eat the apple. She was tempted by the serpent." "Yes," I argue, thoughts coming out half-formed. "But...she didn't have to take a bite. She chose to.

Wrong is wrong only when you are at liberty to choose.

There are those who believe destiny rests at the feet of the gods, but the truth is that it confronts the conscious of man with a burning challenge.

The act of willing this or that, of choosing among various courses of conduct, is central in the realm of ethics.

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

Circumstances are beyond the control of man; but his conduct is in his own power.

Morality pertains only to the sphere of man's free will - only to those actions which are open to his choice.

Integrity in the Moment of Choice: Quality of life depends on what happens in the space between stimulus and response.

Fate always gives you two choices, the one you should take, and the one you do.

Should I be the one to play God? We're both about the same age, but we grew up in different neighborhoods.

A moral choice in its basic terms appears to be a choice that favors survival: a choice made in favor of life.

Choice is the essence of ethics: if there were no choice there would be no ethics, no good, no evil; good and evil have meaning only insofar as man is free to choose.

We can now destroy or we can cherish-the choice is ours.

The deepest, the intelligible, part of the nature of man is that part which does not take refuge in causality, but which chooses in freedom the good or the bad.

But 'Thou mayest!'! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win

I've always shrunk from usurping the functions of Providence, and when I have to exercise them I decidedly prefer that it shouldn't be on an errand of destruction.

In the real world in which we live, you always have to choose between evils. And in choosing between evils, you have to have moral criteria for how to make those choices.

What influences our behavior, and what our level of responsibility is, are very complex issues. And anytime we try to make this simplistic, we don't serve people well.

I believe that fate is choices - it's not chance.