Volition Quotes

• That's the difference between irony and sarcasm. Irony can be spontaneous, while sarcasm requires volition. You have to create sarcasm.

  Christopher Moore

  Sarcasm, Differences, Irony

  Christopher Moore (2009). “Lamb: A Novel”, p.149, Hachette UK

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• One's own free and unfettered volition, one's own caprice, however wild, one's own fancy, inflamed sometimes to the point of madness - that is the one best and greatest good, which is never taken into consideration because it cannot fit into any classification and the omission of which sends all systems and theories to the devil.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Taken, Omission, Devil

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• A person with half volition goes backwards and forwards, but makes no progress on even the smoothest of roads.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Commitment, Progress, Half

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• Only the human spirit can act with volition and consciously change itself; it is the only thing in all creation that is not entirely at the mercy of forces outside itself.

  Dean Koontz

  Spirit, Mercy, Creation

  Dean Koontz (2007). “Sole Survivor: A Novel”, p.402, Bantam

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• And this we should believe: that hope and volition can bring us closer to our ultimate goal: justice for all, injustice for no-one.

  Eyvind Johnson

  Believe, Justice For All, Goal

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• If what is seen and experienced is portrayed in the language of logic, then it is science. If it is communicated through forms whose connections are not accessible to the conscious mind but are recognized intuitively, then it is art.

  Albert Einstein

  Art, Mind, Connections

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• Volition . . . takes place only when there are a number of conflicting systems of ideas, and depends on our having a complex field of consciousness.

  William James

  Philosophy, Educational, Ideas

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.104, Harvard University Press

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• This is one of man's oldest riddles. How can the independence of human volition be harmonized with the fact that we are integral parts of a universe which is subject to the rigid order of nature's laws?

  Max Planck

  Nature, Science, Men

  Max Planck (1959). “The new science: 3 complete works: Where is science going? The universe in the light of modern physics; The philosophy of physics”

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• Forgetting is something that time takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision.

  Simon Wiesenthal

  Forgiveness, Decision, Care

  Simon Wiesenthal (2008). “The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness”, p.100, Schocken

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• The ruin of the human heart is self-interest, which the American merchant calls self-service. We have become a self-service populace, and all our specious comforts -the automatic elevator, the escalator, the cafeteria -are depriving us of volition and moral and physical energy.

  Edward Dahlberg

  Heart, Self, Cafeteria

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• We must look deeply into the nature of our volition to see whether it is pushing us in the direction of liberation from suffering and toward peace and compassion, or in the direction of affliction and misery. What is it that we really want deep in our heart? Is it money, fame, power? Or is it finding inner peace, being able to live life fully and enjoy the present moment?

  Nhat Hanh

  Motivational, Live Life, Heart

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• Reality is how we interpret it. Imagination and volition play a part in that interpretation. Which means that all reality is to some extent a fiction.

  Yann Martel

  Mean, Reality, Play

  "May Richard Parker be always at your side". The Guardian Interview, www.theguardian.com. November 26, 2002.

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• Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live

  Toni Morrison

  Land, Fruit, Bears

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• My case is a species of madness, only that it is a derangement of the Volition, and not of the intellectual faculties.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Addiction, Intellectual, Madness

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge “The Letters Volume 2”, Jazzybee Verlag

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• We see that every external motion, act, gesture, whether voluntary or mechanical, organic or mental, is produced and preceded by internal feeling or emotion, will or volition, and thought or mind.

  H. P. Blavatsky

  Feelings, Mind, Gestures

  H.P. Blavatsky (2016). “The Secret Doctrine”, p.194, Penguin

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• Anyone who has that weird volition to become an actor probably has a weird volition to do lots of other creative things - to write, to play music, to paint, to cook.

  Minnie Driver

  Writing, Play, Creative

  "I've taken a pounding" by Alexis Petridis, www.theguardian.com. September 3, 2004.

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• The final upshot of thinking is the exercise of volition, and of this thought no longer forms a part; but belief is only a stadium of mental action, an effect upon our nature due to thought, which will influence future thinking.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Exercise, Thinking, Finals

  Charles Sanders Peirce, Nathan Houser, Christian J.W. J. W. Kloesel (1992). “The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)”, p.129, Indiana University Press

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• The pure mystic wishes to approach his God only in the all-embracing love. The yogi, too, walks toward one single aspect of God. The bhakti-yogi keeps to the road of love and devotion, the raja and hatha yogi choose the path of self-control or volition, the jnana yogi will follow that of wisdom and cognition.

  Franz Bardon

  Self, Magic, Wish

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• The mind is still haunted with its old unconscious ways; it broods on lost authorities; and the yearning, the deep and hollowing yearning for divine volition and service is with us still.

  Julian Jaynes

  Mind, Way, Divine

  Julian Jaynes (2000). “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind”, p.323, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The other thing I like, in fact, several months ago I introduced a bill to end the absurd catch and release policy where our government has been giving tickets, essentially, to people who enter illegally and then letting them go and show up of their own volition.

  John Doolittle

  Letting Go, Government, People

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• Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science.

  Albert Einstein

  Motivational, Art, Freedom

  Albert Einstein (2013). “Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives”, p.37, Princeton University Press

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• Freedom of Will-that is the expression for the complex state of delight of the person exercising volition, who commands and at the same time identifies himself with the executor of the order-who, as such, enjoys also the triumph over obstacles, but thinks within himself that it was really his own will that overcame them. In this way the person exercising volition adds the feelings of delight of his successful executive instruments, the useful underwills or under-souls-indeed, our body is but a social structure composed of many souls-to his feelings of delight as commander.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Successful, Exercise, Thinking

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• Liberty is not about class war, income war, race war, national war, a war between the sexes, or any other conflict apart from the core conflict between individuals and those who would seek power and control over the human spirit. Liberty is the dream that we can all work together, in ways of our choosing and of our own human volition, to realize a better life.

  Jeffrey Tucker

  Dream, Sex, War

  FaceBook post by Jeffrey A. Tucker from Jun 03, 2014

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• Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.

  John Banville

  Writing, Character, Exercise

  FaceBook post by John Banville from Nov 16, 2012

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• As far as you are concerned the present is your point of action, focus and power, and from that point of volition you form both your future and past. Realizing this, you will understand that you are not at the mercy of a past over which you have no control.

  Seth

  Past, Focus, Action

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