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Choice Quotes

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Choice Quotes

“For animals, the confinement of the body is the confinement of the whole being, but a person can choose freedom even when he has no physical autonomy. In order to do so, he must know what choice is, and he must believe that he deserves it. By sharing stories, we keep choice alive in the imagination and in language. We give each other the strength to perform choice in the mind even when we cannot perform it with the body.”

HumanChoiceConfinement
Book:The Art of Choosing
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“Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the face of alternatives by means of volitional choice. He has no automatic knowledge of what is good for him or evil, what values his life depends on, what course of action it requires. Are you prattling about an instinct of self-preservation? An instinct of self-preservation is precisely what man does not possess. An 'instinct' in as unerring and automatic form of knowledge. A desire is not an instinct. A desire to live does not give you the knowledge required for living. And even man's desire to live is not automatic: your secret evil today is that that is the desire you do not hold. Your fear of death is not a love of life and will not give you the knowledge needed to keep it. Man must obtain his knowledge and choose his actions by a process of thinking, which nature will not force him to perform. Man has the power to act as his own destroyer--and that is the way he has acted through most of history.”

LifeHuman NatureThoughtManChoiceInstincts
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“Neither are the humanistic scholars and artists of any great help these days. They used to be, and were supposed to be, as a group, carriers of and teachers of the eternal verities and the higher life. The goal of humanistic studies was defined as the perception and knowledge of the good, the beautiful, and the true. Such studies were expected to refine the discrimination between what is excellent and what is not (excellence generally being understood to be the true, the good, and the beautiful). They were supposed to inspire the student to the better life, to the higher life, to goodness and virtue. What was truly valuable, Matthew Arnold said, was 'the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world.' [...] No, it is quite clear from our experience of the last fifty years or so that the pre-1914 certainties of the humanists, of the artists, of the dramatists and poets, of the philosophers, of the critics, and of those who are generally inner-directed have given way to a chaos of relativism. No one of these people now knows how and what to choose, nor does he know how to defend and validate his choice.”

ValuesHumanismChoiceRelativism
Book:Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences
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“Individual free choices” can only be the expression of an “individual free will”. The notion of an “individual free will” generating “individual free choices” creates a much needed consequence: personal accountability. Personal accountability is vital for a primitive, immature human organization based on reprehension or praise. The permanent interaction of a unique inherited Nature (and maybe a unique “soul”) with a unique nurture (environment), will always determine all our “individual free choices”, from cradle to grave. It is impossible for the individual to be sentient before birth and choose these two or three unique factors. The logic of holding someone personally accountable for a “non-chosen” choice eludes me. The notion of individual free will can at best be a “gut felt” illusion, but can never have logical relevance. What sort of human (and divine!) organization can be based on the consequence of a “gut felt” illusion? -Our current one; primitive, illogical, unstable and permanently conflictual. Be it for all individual choices or all differences, the definitive ban of the illusionary notion of personal accountability is the missing step that will lead to human maturity. How’s your “gut” now?”

HumanismThoughtMaturityChoiceAccountabilityFree WillDeterminism
Author:Haroutioun Bochnakian
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“There are those wonderful moments of clarity in life when one is reminded how irreparably flawed we humans are. Once, when I was nineteen, on the subway in Boston I lost my balance slightly and bumped into an elderly woman. I quickly apologized and she replied, "Well, hold on to something, stupid." There it is. That's it. That's it in a nutshell. I don't want to sound negative, but I think every fetus should be shown a film of that incident, maybe projected up on the uterine wall, and then asked if it wants to come out. I am a strong believer in a woman's right to choose, but I also think that in the last trimester, the kid should be given every opportunity to back out.”

LifeHumanityBirthChoiceImperfectionBabiesFlaw
Author:Paula Poundstone
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“O The Ring and the Answer A Poem by Alexander Martini One carries the Ring. Not from pride. Not from power. But because he can. He knows the weight. He knows the whisper. He knows the lure of ruling. Yet he offers it forth. Not to command. But to share. Not from greed. But from grace. “Will you help to carry?” he asks. Not: “Will you rule?” But: “Will you unite?” And all reply: “Yes.” Not loudly. But true. Then the Ring loses its center. For power, shared, becomes responsibility. And responsibility, shared, becomes community. The burden grows lighter. Not because it fades. But because it is borne — by many, in love. The world is transformed. Not by victory over darkness. But by refusing to become dark. Yet beware, if the “Yes” is not born of truth, but of greed. Then the Ring is not shared. It multiplies. And many Rings mean not freedom, but fetters. For power without love remains power. And power without grace becomes tyranny. But when the answer comes from truth, power turns to light. Burden turns to love. And one Ring becomes — a circle. A circle that does not bind. But connects. This poem was inspired by the symbolic legacy of Tolkien’s Ring — reimagined through the lens of love, grace, and communal transformation.”

PoetryHumanityPowerTransformationUnityMythAwakeningChoiceRitualAlexandermartini
Author:Alexander Martini
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“Were these boys in their right minds? Here were two boys with good intellect, one eighteen and one nineteen. They had all the prospects that life could hold out for any of the young; one a graduate of Chicago and another of Ann Arbor; one who had passed his examination for the Harvard Law School and was about to take a trip in Europe,--another who had passed at Ann Arbor, the youngest in his class, with three thousand dollars in the bank. Boys who never knew what it was to want a dollar; boys who could reach any position that was to boys of that kind to reach; boys of distinguished and honorable families, families of wealth and position, with all the world before them. And they gave it all up for nothing, for nothing! They took a little companion of one of them, on a crowded street, and killed him, for nothing, and sacrificed everything that could be of value in human life upon the crazy scheme of a couple of immature lads. Now, your Honor, you have been a boy; I have been a boy. And we have known other boys. The best way to understand somebody else is to put yourself in his place. Is it within the realm of your imagination that a boy who was right, with all the prospects of life before him, who could choose what he wanted, without the slightest reason in the world would lure a young companion to his death, and take his place in the shadow of the gallows? ...No one who has the process of reasoning could doubt that a boy who would do that is not right. How insane they are I care not, whether medically or legally. They did not reason; they could not reason; they committed the most foolish, most unprovoked, most purposeless, most causeless act that any two boys ever committed, and they put themselves where the rope is dangling above their heads.... Why did they kill little Bobby Franks? Not for money, not for spite; not for hate. They killed him as they might kill a spider or a fly, for the experience. They killed him because they were made that way. Because somewhere in the infinite processes that go to the making up of the boy or the man something slipped, and those unfortunate lads sit here hated, despised, outcasts, with the community shouting for their blood. . . . I know, Your Honor, that every atom of life in all this universe is bound up together. I know that a pebble cannot be thrown into the ocean without disturbing every drop of water in the sea. I know that every life is inextricably mixed and woven with every other life. I know that every influence, conscious and unconscious, acts and reacts on every living organism, and that no one can fix the blame. I know that all life is a series of infinite chances, which sometimes result one way and sometimes another. I have not the infinite wisdom that can fathom it, neither has any other human brain”

InspirationalWisdomScienceCompassionMoralityEmpathyChoiceBiologyFree WillDeterminismReductionism
Book:Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom
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“Your judgments about another person say more about your own character than the character of the person you are pointing a finger at. This is the key and one of the most fundamental insights about the ‘red flags’ that we often dismiss regarding the people in our lives. If someone complains a lot to you about other people, guess what? That is part of their current character. And, as quickly as the tide changes, you can just as easily become the person they target and criticize, point fingers at, and negatively judge. Forever and always, until vibrations are raised, this will be the cycle of the relationship. So, it’s your choice to continue to engage in the cycle with them, or to move on. There are plenty of people who do not criticize, point fingers, or judge. THIS is the kind of character we want to foster within ourselves. THIS is the character of the kind of people we DO want to develop close relationships with.”

InspirationalCharacterWisdomSpiritualGrowthRelationshipsFriendshipConsciousnessPsychologyAcceptanceUnityInner PeaceZenMoving ForwardMoving OnChoiceNew AgeJudging OthersVibration
Book:Living Peace: Essential Teachings For Enriching Life
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“There are two paths of which one may choose in the walk of life; one we are born with, and the one we consciously blaze. One is naturally true, while the other is a perceptive illusion. Choose wisely at each fork in the road.”

LifeWisdomTruthQuotesNaturalConsciousnessPathPerceptionChoiceIllusions
Book:From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence
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“You know people, they will always find something or the other to talk about. Don't take it seriously. But remember that you are going through some of the most decisive moments of your life. You are bearing a burden that is much heavier than a woman as young as you should be bearing. But if you get through these days, you win. Do what feels infinitely right. There will be thousand naysayers. Don't be tempted. Be steadfast...”

WisdomInspireChoiceChooseIndian FictionBenyaminIndian LiteratureJasd1
Book:Jasmine Days
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“You cannot do anything unless you allow your passion to motivate you. People may tell you, "you can do it", "you can make it" "it's possible" but when you tell yourself always " I can't make it", it's your choice that rules everything!”

PeopleI CanInspirationMotivationPassionPositivePositive ThinkingInspireIsraelmore AyivorEnthusiasmChoiceBelieve In YourselfHopefulYou Can Do ItYou CanEverythingMotivateDriveSelf BeliefRulePositive AffirmationsYes You CanYes We CanYou Can Make ItIt S PossibleIt S ImpossibleFoood For ThoughtI Can T Do ItI Can T Make It
Book:The Great Hand Book of Quotes
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“The way into the hall of success always passes through the chamber of decision. Decide to be a success; success is deliberate!”

WayWisdomSuccessFailureFood For ThoughtIsraelmore AyivorWinnerChoiceWinDeliberateChamberChooseFailDecideWinnersPassWonMake A ChoiceMake A PlanNo ChoiceIntentionallyDeliberatelyHallDecide To BeChamber Of DecisionChamber Of IndecisionHall Of FailureMake Good Choice
Book:The Great Hand Book of Quotes
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“Any day above ground is a good day. Before you complain about anything, be thankful for your life and the things that are still going well.”

LifeInspirationTruthHappinessLife LessonsEnergyLife QuotesAdvicePositiveLife PhilosophyPerspectiveGratitudeLivingLife And LivingReflectionGratefulComplainingLifestyleManifestationLife Lessons QuotesChoiceLove LifeThought ProvokingManifestHappiness QuotesMentalityMissionSuccessful PeopleBe GratefulSuccess In LifeLive Your LifeAffirmationLive In The MomentOutlookPositive OutlookGood DayAffirmationsChangesPositive MindsetStay PositivePurposeful LivingSuccess Self ImprovementWords To Live ByGratitude QuotesManifestingPositive EnergyChancesBe InspiredLife GoalsSuccessful LifeLife AdviceThought ProcessGermany Kent QuotesHappiness AdviceGermany KentLife Is A JourneyThe Hope GuruHope GuruGermany Kent QuoteAttitude Is EverythingPurpose DrivenLife Philosophy InspirationalAttitude Of GratitudeHappiness Positive OutlookPositive VibesLive Your Life To The FullestHappiness LifePerspective QuotesMotivational SpeakersReflection On LifeHappiness In LifePerspective On LifeEnergy Of The UniverseInspirational SpeakersBe PositiveLife Philosophy QuotesLive With PurposeSuccessful IndividualsEnjoy TodayGratitude Happiness Inner PeaceOutlook In LifeSuccessful MindHappiness ChoicesSuccessful QuotesThought Of The DayBe ThankfulMind Over MatterGratitude Life Happiness SuccessTransformational SpeakersGratitude Is A ChoiceEnergy AlignmentGratitude AttitudeHappiness Fulfillment DesireAbundant LivingBe Positive QuotesNo ComplainingOutlook And AttitudeBreak The CycleLife Lessons Life ReasonBe IntentionalComplaining QuotesBe Thankful For What You HaveLive On PurposeBe Positive In LifeGratitude WorksBe Thankful For Each DayBe Thankful For Your LifeAbundant MindsetBe Thankful To Be AliveSee The Good In EverythingAttitude Of Gratitude GratefulComplaining About Your JobComplaining About Your StrugglesMission In LifeStart LivingSuccess LivingThought Provoking InspirationalLive Your Life MissionAbove GroundLive Your Life In A Positive WayLive Your Life On PurposePositivity 101All Is Not BadChoose Your StoryHappy On PurposeLive GratefulReflection MotivationShow GratitudeSpiritual TruthsThought Pattern
Author:Germany Kent
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“Have no regrets in life because of the choices you make. Good or bad, they are a learning experience, to help you grow. The only regret in life, is to never make a choice at all.”

LifeLife LessonsChoicesLife QuotesLife PhilosophyRegretLife And LivingExperienceLife Lessons QuotesChoiceLife LessonLife ExperienceRegretsLearning From MistakesExperiencesNo RegretsChoices And ConsequencesLearning ExperienceExperience QuotesChoices You MakeChoice QuotesChoices QuotesRegret QuotesRegrets Of The PastChoices And AttitudeExperiences QuotesChoice And AttitudeLearning To LiveExperience Mistakes WisdomRegrets Free LifeNo RegretLearning Experiences
Author:James Hauenstein
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“My borrowed power insists that negative situations, too, assist me on the path to greater becoming. It's never about the circumstance(s); these are surface level 'symptomatics'. How we deal with the energy it brings, however, is telling of how we choose to respond. There's no escaping Earth-School lessons. Embrace that it's still about your development, and not the illusion of fear's representative attempting to lead you astray. Be conscious and see free.”

TimeGrowthPowerPathPositiveCircumstancesIllusionNegativeEmbraceEvolveChoiceTemporarySymptomsEscapeGrowBorrowedEscapingDevelopReboundSituationsRespondAssistJourney Evolution
Book:From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence
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