Stendhal Quotes

All sin and all crime comes from the same thing: 'I decided. I decided this was okay.'

But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.

It is your own convictions which compels you; that is, choice compels choice.

People rarely do what they don't want to.

The criterion for free choice can never be an absolute one, but neither is it entirely relative.

I don't do anything that is not fun. I just don't do it.

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

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.

How can an act done under compulsion have any moral element in it, seeing that what is moral is the free act of an intelligent being?

One cannot prescribe to anyone whether he should follow an ethic of absolute ends or an ethic of responsibility.

doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right

If I have written too polemically, it is only because of the passionate concern that we consider because it is too late whether we truly know what we are doing.

If a man's free will to adopt ideas and values is inalienable, his freedom of action - his freedom to put these ideas into effect in the world - is not in such a fortunate condition.

You cannot force anybody to honour somebody. You can only ask.

People are decisions and actions.

We are not only responsible for what we do but also for what we do not do.

What I choose to do reflects who I am.

I like to believe that most human beings go about things with a point of view that they're just doing what they feel like they need to do at that time. Sometimes people make bad decisions, but it's not evil, not malicious.

Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose.

Fundamentally, we are a product of choice, not nature (genes) or nurture (upbringing, environment).

You can choose what you do, you cant choose what you like to do.

When you say, "Wait a moment," you are bound by your karma; when you say "Yes I will," you are free.

...the essential intention is the real sin. A man who cannot choose ceases to be a man.

I cannot give up my will - I must exercise it, putting it into action.