Wills Quotes
More Wills Quotes
In the life of nations, what in the last resort decides questions is a kind of Judgment Court of God... Always before god and the world the stronger has the right to carry through what he Wills.
Adolf Hitler— speech in Munich, 13 April 1923
In [the Irving Kristol] era, rather than being the "stupid party," Republicans became the party of ideas. Neoconservatism's task was, he said, to "convert the Republican Party and American conservatism in general, against their respective Wills, into a new kind conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy."
— Jonathan Tobin, in "The power of ideas", in The Jerusalem Post (29 September 2009)
Yet when I approach 584 Her loveliness, so absolute she seems And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she Wills to do or say, Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.
john milton— 1665 Adam speaking of Eve. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.8, l.546-50.
In hell, sinners shall forever lay all the blame on their own Wills. Hell is a rational torment by conscience.
Richard Baxter— The Saints' Everlasting Rest (1650), "The People Who Receive the Saints' Rest"
The kingdom of God which is within us consists in our willing whatever God Wills, always, in every thing, and without reservation; and thus His kingdom comes; for His will is then done as it is in heaven, since we will nothing but what is dictated by His sovereign pleasure.
françois fénelon— P. 269. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
It is very strange, this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. We cannot work, we cannot think, unless our stomach Wills so. It dictates to us our emotions, our passions.
jerome k. jerome— Ch. 10 (Three Men in a Boat (1889))
This death’s livery which walled its bearers from ordinary life was sign that they have sold their Wills and bodies to the State: and contracted themselves into a service not the less abject for that its beginning was voluntary.
thomas edward ("t. e.") lawrence— The Revolt in the Desert (1927) Ch. 35
Every man is free to do that which he Wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.
Herbert Spencer— Ch. 6, The Formula of Justice.
Every person, if he so Wills, can become a paradigmatic human being, not by brushing of his accidental qualities, but by remaining in them and ennobling them. He ennobles them by choosing them.
— Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or II, Hong p. 262.
Our Wills are ours, we know not how;Our Wills are ours, to make them thine.
— Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H. (1849), Introduction, Stanza 4.
Our Wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act III, scene 2, line 221.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit." Blessed are they who are stripped of every thing, even of their own Wills, that they may no longer belong to themselves.
françois fénelon— p. 544. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
If we are only as the potter's clay Made to be fashioned as the artist Wills, And broken into shards if we offend The eye of Him who made us, it is well.
— Rights; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
The Wheel weaves as the Wheel Wills, and we are only the thread of the Pattern.
robert jordan— Moiraine Damodred
What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God Wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die.
— Journal entry, Gilleleie (1 August 1835) Journals 1A; this is considered to be one of the earliest statements of existentialist thought.Variant translation: My focus should be on what I do in life, not knowing everything, excluding knowledge on what you do. The is key to find a purpose, whatever it truly is that God wills me to do; it's crucial to find a truth which is true to me, to find the idea which I am willing to live and die for.Later variant: What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain knowledge must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. ... I certainly do not deny that I still recognize an imperative of knowledge and that through it one can work upon men, but it must be taken up into my life, and that is what I now recognize as the most important thing.Later expression of such thoughts in a letter to Peter Wilhelm Lund (31 August 1835)Variant translation: I must find a truth that is true for me.
The kingdom of God which is within us consists in our willing whatever God Wills, always, in every thing, and without reservation; and thus His kingdom comes; for His will is then done as it is in heaven, since we will nothing but what is dictated by His sovereign pleasure.
— François Fénelon, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers P. 269. (1895)
Our Wills are ours, we know not how; Our Wills are ours, to make them thine.
— Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H. (1849), Introduction, Stanza 4.
Let's choose executors and talk of Wills: And yet not so, for what can we bequeath Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Richard II (c. 1595), Act III, scene 2, line 148.
Let's choose executors and talk of Wills: And yet not so, for what can we bequeath, Save our desposed bodies to the ground?
— Act III, scene 2, line 148.
The Wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death.
— The Tempest, Act I, scene 1, line 70.
The law has ever been watchful and jealous of Wills made under religious influences, and especially so when those influences connect themselves with any individual who is the object of the testator's bounty.
— Sir J. P. Wilde, Smith v. Tebbitt (1867), L. R. 1 Pr. & D. 437.
I regret exceedingly that, not only ordinary laymen, but, as it seems to me, professional men, do not understand the great difficulty there is in drawing Wills, and do not bestow a little more care and pains in endeavouring to draw them in such a way as that the numerous questions which often arise on them should be avoided. I regret to say that these questions often throw a great deal of expense on parties interested under the Wills, and are the cause of great heartburnings and most bitter animosities.
— Pearson, J., In re Wait; Workman v. Petgrave (1885), L. R. 30 C. D. 622.
I quite admit that on the question of the construction of Wills relating to real property the cases have always had greater attention given to them than in the case of personalty, because land in England passes by title, and it has always been the habit of the lawyers and Judges to look with greater strictness to the reported cases where it is a question of land than where it is a question of personalty.
— Chitty, J., In re Bright-Smith; Bright-Smith v. Bright-Smith (1886), L. R. 31 CD. 318.
Speaking for myself, I do not look upon Wills as Chinese puzzles; they no doubt do present great difficulties, but I do not feel myself the serious difficulty which other learned Judges have.
— Chitty, J., In re Roper's Estate (1889), L. J. Rep. (N. S.) 58 C. D. 442.
As the flowers follow the sun, and silently hold up their petals to be tinted and enlarged by its shining, so must we, if we would know the joy of God, hold our souls, Wills, hearts, and minds, still before Him, whose voice commands, whose love warns, whose truth makes fair our whole being.' God speaks for the most part in such silence only. If the soul be full of tumult and jangling voices, His voice is little likely to be heard.
— Alexander Maclaren, p. 559. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
What disturbs us in this world is not " trouble," but our opposition to trouble. The true source of all that frets and irritates and wears away our lives, is not in external things, but in the resistance of our Wills to the will of God expressed by external things.
— Alexander Maclaren, p. 588. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
Only be steadfast, never waver, Nor seek earth's favor, But rest; Thou knowest what God Wills must be For all His creatures so for thee The best.
— Paul Fleming, p. 248. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes, And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he Wills, Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass: Environment is but his looking-glass.
james allen— James Allen, As A Man Thinketh (1902)
