Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

The only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do.

I believe God gives people the right to say no, to resist, to refuse, to reject, to cling to their sins, to cling to their version of their story.

The little things, I can obey. But the big things - how we think, what we value - those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone - or any society - determine those for you.

One of the greatest gifts that God has given us is free will. Even though it's free, we don't take advantage of it as much as we could when it comes to matters of the heart.

I like characters that make choices and try to drive their own fate.

I think there is choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice.

I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

I believe everybody is responsible for what they do themselves.

I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

Belief, like love, must be voluntary.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Our people [Mormons] are free to live their life as they please. They have to make choices.

Part of being not only a liberal but also a human is to make your own decisions.

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.

I don't mean you disregard every rule of your community. I don't go around naked, for example. I don't run through red lights. The little things, I can obey. But the big things- how we think, what we value- those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone-or any society- determine those for you. ' -Morrie Schwartz

But freedom is the possibility of a total and centered act of the personality, an act in which all the drives and influences which constitute the destiny of man are brought into the centered unity of a decision.

You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want.

The man who does something under orders is not unhappy; he is unhappy who does something against his will.

All attempts to coerce the living will of human beings into the service of something they do not want must fail

We are given an autonomy and the real autonomy... and God would much rather we went freely to hell than compel us to go to heaven.

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.

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

I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose freewill.