613 Quotes About Free-will

So far we've found that for a decision to be free in this sense, it has to satisfy two conditions: first, it can't be predetermined, and second it can't be random

It's a real possibility that neuroscientists could discover that we don't have free will. I'm just not so sure that they have discovered this.

So it seems to me just confused to say that if nothing caused you to choose chocolate, then you didn't choose chocolate.

The claim is that all of us sometimes fail to be free. We are all sometimes driven by things like unconscious plans. But we aren't always driven by such things.

A puppet is free so long as he loves his strings

We are organisms, not angels, and our minds are organs, not pipelines to the truth. Our minds evolved by natural selection to solve problems that were life and death matters to our ancestors, not to commune with correctness and answer any question we are capable of asking. We cannot hold ten thousand words in short-term memory. We cannot see in ultraviolet light. And perhaps we cannot solve conundrums like free will and sentience.

What time is it?’‘Whatever time you want it to be,’ she gave him a cheeky wink. ‘Now be honest, did you ask for free will?’‘How did you—?’Amanita joined Mario beneath the covers. The ethereal Threads tethering her wrists phased through the thick wool blankets like sunlight through a windowpane.‘The bird that acknowledges its cage only ever sings of freedom,’ she said dreamily.

In the meantime, it appears that the young souls are in charge. One could ask how this could happen, what with all of the guidance from wise souls in Spirit helping us to choose our earthly lives and bodies. One should not underestimate Free Will. We can choose and, surprisingly enough on the Spirit plane, some choices come out of enthusiasm and impulsiveness and not from wisdom and deliberation.

Sometimes we must allow our locked-and-tethered inner demon a short glimpse beyond the bars,” thought Mario, “lest we forget the full extent of our virtue. One’s power does not reside in the length of their demon’s claw, but in the strength of its manacle. The unleashed demon is worthless, lest it’s controlled.