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Quote by William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564 - April 23, 1616) was one of the greatest poets of the English Renaissance, renowned for his dramatic works. His plays spanned a variety of genres, including tragedy, comedy, and history, and have had a profound impact on literature worldwide. more

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“Every one knows that the heavenly bodies move in certain paths in relation to each other with seeming consistency and regularity which we call [physical] law. ... No one attributes freewill or motive to the material world. Is the conduct of man or the other animals any more subject to whim or choice than the action of the planets? ... We know that man's every act is induced by motives that led or urged him here or there; that the sequence of cause and effect runs through the whole universe, and is nowhere more compelling than with man.”

KnowsMenWorldWholeBodyRunningActionMovingLawCertainChoicesUniverseCausesAnimalPathSubjectsEffectsPlanetsMaterialsRelationMotiveHeavenlyFree WillAttributesCompellingConsistencySequenceCause And EffectSeemingWhimMaterial WorldRegularityHeavenly Bodies
Author:Clarence Darrow
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“The inward persuasion that we are free to do, or not to do a thing, is but a mere illusion. If we trace the true principle of our actions, we shall find, that they are always necessary consequences of our volitions and desires, which are never in our power. You think yourself free, because you do what you will; but are you free to will, or not to will; to desire, or not to desire? Are not your volitions and desires necessarily excited by objects or qualities totally independent of you?”

IfsThinkingActionDesireQualityPrinciplesObjectsIllusionConsequenceIndependentMereExcitedFree WillInwardPersuasionOur ActionsVolition
Author:Baron d'Holbach
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“If the moon, in the act of completing its eternal way around the earth, were gifted with self-consciousness, it would feel thoroughly convinced that it was traveling its way of its own accord on the strength of a resolution taken once and for all. So would a Being, endowed with higher insight and more perfect intelligence, watching man and his doings, smile about man's illusion that he was acting according to his own free will.”

IfsMenWayFeelsSelfEarthPerfectActingConsciousnessTakenHigherMoonEternalIllusionInsightConvincedFree WillResolutionGiftedAccordSelf ConsciousnessDoingsCompleting
Author:Albert Einstein
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“I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills,' accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others, even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of free will keeps me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and from losing my temper.”

IfsMenWantBelieveActionIndividualCan DoActingSituationAwarenessLosingFellowsPainfulFree WillTemperFellow ManReconcileAccompany
Author:Albert Einstein
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