Thomas Nagel Quotes

Nothing harms or destroys us but the wrong use of that liberty of choice which God has entrusted to us.

Either our wills are determined by prior causes and we are not responsible for them, or they are the product of chance and we are not responsible for them.

The neutral view of free will is impossible. It involves choice without desire.

Of course I believe in free will. Do we have a choice?

Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws. Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.

To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility.

Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain.

Simple determinism, whether of the genetic or environmental kind, is a depressing prospect for those with a fondness for free will.

I believe we've been given free will, and we can take responsibility for our own lives and for creating our own environments - which I think at times can be a little much for people to deal with.

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

You are free to choose. You are not free not to choose. No choice is a choice. You are free to choose but you are not free to choose the consequences of that choice.

Everything you do is by choice. It may not seem so, but it is.

Everybody acts as if they have free will. They act as if they can make these decisions; do they know they don't? I think there's been some back-down on the idea that everything is determined.

If the effort also is predestined, it is not the less our effort, made of our free will.

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

Man is fully responsible for his nature and his choices.

I'm really only responsible for my own actions.

Our acts make or mar us, we are the children of our own deeds.

The fact that the underlying laws of physics are deterministic and impersonal does not mean that at the human level we can't talk about ideas about reasons and goals and purposes and free will.

Intellectually, I believe there's no free will.

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

What is an anarchist? One who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice.

I come down on the side of free will but I have sympathy for those who believe in fate because there is something about life which we feel we have no control over.

You gain or lose power according to the choices that you make.

The Choice, after all, is ours to make.