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Determinism Quotes

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Determinism Quotes

“To the strong there is also no such thing as determinism as the determinists understand it. Environment and circumambient conditions determine nothing in the man of strong will. To him the only thing that counts, the only thing he hears is his inner voice, the voice of his ruling instinct. The most environment can do is to provide this ruling instinct with an anvil on which to beat out its owner's destiny, and beneath the racket and din of its titanic action all the voices of stimuli from outside, all the determining suggestions and hints from environment, sink into an insignificant and inaudible whisper, not even heard, much less heeded, therefore, by the strong man. That is why the passion of a strong man may be permanent, that is why the actions of a strong man may be consistent; because they depend upon an inner constitution of things which cannot change, and not upon environment which can and does change. If the strong man is acquainted with determinism at all, it is a determinism from within, a voice from his own breast; but this is not the determinism of the determinists.”

StrengthWillDeterminism
Author:Anthony Ludovici
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“The will has no overall purpose, aims at no highest good, and can never be satisfied. Although it is our essence, it strikes us as an alien agency within, striving for life and procreation blindly, mediated only secondarily by consciousness. Instinctive sexuality is at our core, interfering constantly with the life of the intellect. To be an individual expression of this will is to lead a life of continual desire, deficiency, and suffering. Pleasure or satisfaction exists only relative to a felt lack; it is negative, merely the cessation of an episode of striving or suffering, and has no value of itself. Nothing we can achieve by conscious act of will alters the will to life within us. There is no free will. Human actions, as part of the natural order, are determined [....] As individual parts of the empirical world we are ineluctably pushed through life by a force inside us which is not of our choosing, which gives rise to needs and desires we can never fully satisfy, and is without ultimate purpose. Schopenhauer concludes that it would have been better not to exist—and that the world itself is something whose existence we should deplore rather than celebrate.”

DesireSufferingPleasureConsciousnessSatisfactionSexualityFree WillWillDeterminismSchopenhauer
Author:Christopher Janaway
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“Not only are there meaningless questions, but many of the problems with which the human intellect has tortured itself turn out to be only 'pseudo problems,' because they can be formulated only in terms of questions which are meaningless. Many of the traditional problems of philosophy, of religion, or of ethics, are of this character. Consider, for example, the problem of the freedom of the will. You maintain that you are free to take either the right- or the left-hand fork in the road. I defy you to set up a single objective criterion by which you can prove after you have made the turn that you might have made the other. The problem has no meaning in the sphere of objective activity; it only relates to my personal subjective feelings while making the decision.”

PhilosophyFeelingsScienceReligionEthicsProofDecisionsMeaningFree WillQuestionsSubjectiveDeterminismExperimentScientificObjectiveNobel LaureateFalsifiableFalsifiability
Book:The Nature of Physical Theory
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“Many scientists have tried to make determinism and complementarity the basis of conclusions that seem to me weak and dangerous; for instance, they have used Heisenberg's uncertainty principle to bolster up human free will, though his principle, which applies exclusively to the behavior of electrons and is the direct result of microphysical measurement techniques, has nothing to do with human freedom of choice. It is far safer and wiser that the physicist remain on the solid ground of theoretical physics itself and eschew the shifting sands of philosophic extrapolations.”

PhilosophyWisdomScienceDangerousWeakSafetyPhysicsFree WillQuantum MechanicsFreedom Of ChoiceDeterminismScientistsTheoretical PhysicsUncertainty PrincipleHeisenbergWerner Heisenberg
Book:Nouvelles perspectives en microphysique
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“There are two sides to the life of every man, his individual life which is the more free the more abstract its interests, and his elemental swarm-life in which he inevitably obeys laws laid down for him. Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity. A deed done is irrevocable, and its result coinciding in time with the actions of millions of other men assumes an historic significance. The higher a man stands on the social ladder, the more people he is connected with and the more power he has over others, the more evident is the predestination and inevitability of his every action. ‘The king’s heart is in the hands of the Lord.’ A king is history’s slave. History, that is, the unconscious, general, swarm-life of mankind, uses every moment of the life of kings as a tool for its own purposes.”

HistoryIndividualityDeterminism
Book:War and Peace
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“Which do you think is more valuable to humanity? a. Finding ways to tell humans that they have free will despite the incontrovertible fact that their actions are completely dictated by the laws of physics as instantiated in our bodies, brains and environments? That is, engaging in the honored philosophical practice of showing that our notion of "free will" can be compatible with determinism? or b. Telling people, based on our scientific knowledge of physics, neurology, and behavior, that our actions are predetermined rather than dictated by some ghost in our brains, and then sussing out the consequences of that conclusion and applying them to society? Of course my answer is b).”

PhilosophyScienceNatureKnowledgeSocietyPhysicsGhostsDeterminismLaws Of PhysicsNeurologyBrainsIllusion Of Free Will
Author:Jerry A. Coyne
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“Losing a belief in free will has not made me fatalistic—in fact, it has increased my feelings of freedom. My hopes, fears, and neuroses seem less personal and indelible. There is no telling how much I might change in the future. Just as one wouldn’t draw a lasting conclusion about oneself on the basis of a brief experience of indigestion, one needn’t do so on the basis of how one has thought or behaved for vast stretches of time in the past. A creative change of inputs to the system—learning new skills, forming new relationships, adopting new habits of attention—may radically transform one’s life.”

PhilosophyInspirationChangeSelf ImprovementFree WillDeterminism
Book:Free Will
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“You would absolve your Gods of guilt?” Tariq said, sounding surprised. “You would absolve humanity of responsibility?” Amadeus asked, scornful. “The deferral of consequence to higher power is the deepest form of moral cowardice conceivable. Even your precious Book agrees, Pilgrim – we have a choice.”

EvilAtheismGoodFree WillGodsDeterminismBlind FaithBlack KnightAmadeus Of The Green StretchTariq Isbili
Book:A Practical Guide to Evil V
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“Libet’s EEG experiments suggest that we might not have free will. If the results of the experiment are to be believed, then what is the point? What is the fun if everything is determined? Wouldn’t Almighty get bored with us? We are more than our thoughts. And we are certainly way more than our actions. But how and why?”

LifeMindGodDestinyThoughtsGod QuotesFree WillDeterminismLibet
Book:The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit
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“No one denies that we are influenced by genes and environment. What is denied is that we are determined by our genes and/or environment, that we are literally puppets that cannot act differently, that we have no moral agency, no personal accountability, that we are mere machines. No one who accepts the eternity of the soul can regard our current body, and current environment, as what makes us what we are. Only atheists and materialists hold such ideas. To deny free will is to deny the soul. Without the soul, we would indeed be machines. To put it another way, the reality of free will is the proof of the existence of the soul (since free will is impossible otherwise). People such as Sam Harris require free will to be false because, if it isn’t, his materialist belief system is false.”

SoulFree WillDeterminismSam Harris
Book:The Sam Harris Delusion
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“You can get what you want in life. You must reach out with all your heart.”

WantWishLife And LivingDeterminationDetermineDeterminedPurpose Of LifePersistOptimistWishesYour DestinyPurpose Driven LifeYour LifeDetermined SpiritPurposeful LivingWishful ThinkingDeterminismYour JourneyWishingPurpose In LifePurpose DrivenPersistent EffortDetermined PersonWishes FulfilledPersistent AttitudePersistent ActionsHeart DesiresWishes For New YearPersistent ActionWanting SomethingWishing WellWishing For A Better DayWanting Things To Happen
Author:Lailah Gifty Akita
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“It's politics. You are angry with politics. I understand that. Truly, I do. As powerful as I am, where I come from I am considered a third-tier being. The lords and the royals—some of whom know nothing of the horrors and hardships of war—reign over me. It angers me to no end, and yet I continue. I follow. I do what I must. I do what I have to. I follow the path laid out in front of me. I do my duty.” “Then how are you any different from the slaves?” “We are all slaves, whether we want to accept it or not. It's finding higher meaning in the process of servitude where we find relief.”

PurposeFreedomDestinyFateDestiny QuotesServitudeDeterminismFate QuotesFatalism
Book:The Destroyer of Worlds: An Answer to Every Question
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“So long as we trace the development from its final outcome backwards, the chain of events appears continuous, and we feel we have gained an insight which is completely satisfactory or even exhaustive. But if we proceed in the reverse way, if we start from the premises inferred from the analysis and try to follow these up to the final results, then we no longer get the impression of an inevitable sequence of events which could not have otherwise been determined.”

FateResearchAnalysisHindsightDeterminismHindsight Bias
Book:Beyond the Pleasure Principle
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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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“Until now, human organization could only be based upon something negative which could not be conquered: SCARCITY, and something false: PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY... No wonder instead of producing stability, it produced the exact opposite. The current human organization based upon dealing with the consequences of scarcity and being considered responsible for our individual characteristics which we could never have chosen (our nature, our nurture, our “soul”, and all the choices they engender), will always lead to an irrational, hence unstable human organization causing perpetual conflicts, which is no organization at all. Today, we have the luxury to initiate a rational self-organization based upon two positives: -our HUMAN CONSENSUS; our common desires shared by all, and -the SCIENTIFIC PROJECT to achieve them.”

ScienceOrganizationHumanismRationalAccountabilityFree WillIrrationalConsensusUnreasonableScarcityDeterminismFalsePersonal AccountabilityHuman Organization
Book:The Human Consensus and The Ultimate Project Of Humanity
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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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“Hope is a belief in a better tomorrow.,”

Inspirational QuotesHopeBeliefInspirational LifeTomorrowDeterminationInspirational AttitudeDetermineDeterminedInspirational QuotePersistenceBelieve In YourselfHopefulPersistBeliefsBetter PlaceBelief QuotesBetterBetter PersonDetermined SpiritBelief In GodDeterminismHopes And DreamsHopesBelieve And AchieveHope And FaithHopeful And EncouragingBelievingHope And DespairBetter WorldHope And LoveHopefulnessHope For Each DayPersistent EffortDetermined PersonHope And HealingPersistent AttitudeHope And LifePersistent ActionsBelievesPersistent ActionBetter SelfBelief And AttitudeBelief And Behavior
Author:Lailah Gifty Akita
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“Be determined. You can make it in life. You can make all your dreams come true.”

LifeInspirationalDreamInspirationLife QuotesInspiringDreamsInspirational LifeLife And LivingDeterminationInspirational AttitudeDetermineInsightDeterminedBelieve In YourselfBelieve In GodInsightfulDreamerDreams QuotesDream BigDreamingDreams Come TrueYou Can Do ItMake It HappenDetermined SpiritMake BelieveDeterminismBelieve And AchieveMake A DifferenceBelief In SelfDreamersMake A ChangeDetermined PersonInsightful QuoteMake An ImpactMake A PlanDreamers Versus ReasonersMake A MarkMake PlansYou Can Make
Author:Lailah Gifty Akita
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“Hope: Hold on, persistence effort!”

Inspirational QuotesMotivational QuotesHealingDeterminationDeterminedOptimisticHopefulHealthy LivingEncouragement QuotesDetermined SpiritDetermination QuotesDeterminismHealing The PastHope And FaithHopeful And EncouragingPersistence QuotesHope And DespairOptimism QuotesHope For Each DayEncourage YourselfPersistent AttitudeHope And LifePersistent ActionsPersistent Life
Book:Think Great: Be Great!
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“...if in the heat of the dispute he insists and asks, 'Am I not the master of throwing myself out of the window?' I shall answer him, no; that whilst he preserves his reason there is no probability that the desire of proving his free agency, will become a motive sufficiently powerful to make him sacrifice his life to the attempt: if, notwithstanding this, to prove he is a free agent, he should actually precipitate himself from the window, it would not be a sufficient warranty to conclude he acted freely, but rather that it was the violence of his temperament which spurred him on to this folly. Madness is a state, that depends upon the heat of the blood, not upon the will. A fanatic or a hero, braves death as necessarily as a more phlegmatic man or a coward flies from it.”

MadnessMental IllnessFree WillDeterminism
Author:Baron d'Holbach
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“Not accomplishing your Life Plan is a tragic act of free will. It is akin to charting an elaborate vacation itinerary before arriving at your holiday destination, with all kinds of plans for outdoor adventures and intentions to go sightseeing and shopping, but then ending up spending the whole trip in your hotel room ordering from room service and watching television. In a similar fashion the unconscious soul spends a lifetime in the semi-conscious state of Divine Disconnection and then returns home mostly ‘empty-handed’.”

SoulSpiritualLife LessonsLife QuotesConsciousnessDestinyAwarenessLife PhilosophyLife And LivingAwakeningMeaning Of LifeLife And DeathSpiritual GrowthFree WillPurpose Of LifeSpiritual LifeDestinedLife PurposeSpiritual AwakeningPurposeful LivingLife JourneyHigher ConsciousnessHigher SelfDeterminismDivine SelfSpiritual InsightsGod S PlanLife GoalsUnconsciousnessSpiritual AwarenessPurpose In LifeSoul PurposeLife PlanLife MissionPurpose Of LivingMeaninglessness Of LifeDivine ConnectionDivine LivingLife CallingUnawakenedDivine DisconnectReality ComaSpiritual Unconsciousness
Book:Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny
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“I don't think things happen to us for a reason. I don't think there is some all-knowing force directing our lives so that we can learn a lesson and pass on that knowledge to others. I don't think I had to go through what I did to get this book into your hands. In fact, there were many other ways I could have learned those lessons—and they could have been learned without excruciating pain. Yet I cannot deny that somehow my experiences also turned me into who I am and resulted in this book being in your hands today. Multiple things can be true at the same time.”

PainLife LessonsLife QuoteFundamentalismDeterminismDeconstructionNuances
Book:When Religion Hurts You: Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion
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“Belief is not subject to the will. Men think as they must. Children do not, and cannot, believe exactly as they were taught. They are not exactly like their parents. They differ in temperament, in experience, in capacity, in surroundings. And so there is a continual, though almost imperceptible change. There is development, conscious and unconscious growth, and by comparing long periods of time we find that the old has been almost abandoned, almost lost in the new.”

BeliefGrowthChangeDevelopmentThinkSelflessnessWillDeterminism
Book:Superstition and Other Essays
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