Gertrude Himmelfarb Quotes

The only thing on earth that can determine itself is a human soul.

Well, I think there are no villains in this world. There are just misunderstood heroes.

The hero's will is not that of his ancestors nor of his society, but his own. This will to be oneself is heroism.

Man is abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no aim but what he sets himself.

I'm not in the business of making us look clean, but I don't want us to look like monsters either. I think there is a little bit of hero and villain in all of us.

As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is our responsibility.

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.

I think it is important to remind people of the extent of our free will.

I believe in the freedom of choice in both life and death.

Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice.

Heroes are defined by their villains - Batman is nothing if he doesn't have Two-Face.

We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice.

For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience?

Each man must grant himself … the morality that suits him.

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'm born, and I die, but in between that, I can do whatever I want or have a strong opinion about something.

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

Where there is a hero, there is always a villain.

Our thoughts and our conduct are our own.

Now look at me! Take a good look! I was born and I knew I was alive and I knew what I wanted. What do you think is alive in me? Why do you think I'm alive? Because I have a stomach and eat and digest the food? Because I breathe and work and produce more food to digest? Or because I know what I want, and that something which knows how to want—isn't that life itself? And who—in this damned universe—who can tell me why I should live for anything but for that which I want?

For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it.

I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls.

But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There's no godliness there.

Human beings cannot be willed and molded into non-existence.

Villains are undone by what is worst in them, heroes by what is best.