Anthony Burgess Quotes

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

Morality depends on individual freedom, and it requires some sense to know where to draw the line.

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.

Liberty is the essential precondition for achieving virtue... In order to exercise virtue, we need to have the ability to choose freely.

Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.

Morality, for all the conditioning to which the human mind has been and is subjected, is always a personal choice in the last analysis.

We are product of neither nature nor nurture; we are a product of choice, because there is always a space between stimulus and response. As we wisely exercise our power to choose based on principles, the space will become larger.

Morality is only moral when it is voluntary.

One might rationally argue that individual human beings should be free choose what moral behavior they approve of, and which they don't, subject to the constraints of the law.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

I don't feel guilt. Whatever I wish to do, I do.

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

It is the ability to choose which makes us human.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

A part of fate is the freedom of man. Forever wells up the impulse of choosing and acting in his soul.

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

Mankind's greatest gift... is that we have free choice.

The freewill you have given, we have made a mockery of.

Because one thing God gave us- and I'm afraid it's at times a little too much- is freewill. Freedom to choose. I believe he gave us everything needed to build a beautiful world, if we choose wisely.

Without that freedom to sin there is also no freedom to love.

He was free, free in every way, free to behave like a fool or a machine, free to accept, free to refuse, free to equivocate; to marry, to give up the game, to drag this death weight about with him for years to come. He could do what he liked, no one had the right to advise him, there would be for him no Good or Evil unless he thought them into being.

Choice, I've always believed, is all that separates us from animals.

There is always a choice." "You mean I could choose certain death?" "A choice nevertheless, or perhaps an alternative. You see I believe in freedom. Not many people do, although they will of course protest otherwise. And no practical definition of freedom would be complete without the freedom to take the consequences. Indeed, it is the freedom upon which all the others are based.

In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon.

What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural way, nay, more, a menacing and an imminent way? And what sense can there be in condemning ourselves for taking the wrong way, unless we need have done nothing of the sort, unless the right way was open to us as well? I cannot understand the willingness to act, no matter how we feel, without the belief that acts are really good and bad.