Arnold J. Toynbee Quotes

I think it is important to remind people of the extent of our free will.

A part of fate is the freedom of man. Forever wells up the impulse of choosing and acting in his soul.

Choice is destiny's soul mate.

In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon.

As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is our responsibility.

The range of choice open to the individual is not the decisive factor in determining the degree of human freedom, but what can be chosen and what is chosen by the individual.

There is always a choice." "You mean I could choose certain death?" "A choice nevertheless, or perhaps an alternative. You see I believe in freedom. Not many people do, although they will of course protest otherwise. And no practical definition of freedom would be complete without the freedom to take the consequences. Indeed, it is the freedom upon which all the others are based.

I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose freewill.

More than anything else, I believe it's our decisions, not the conditions of our lives that determine our destiny.

Of course there’s destiny, but destiny doesn’t push you where you don’t want to go. You’re the ones who choose. Destiny is up to you.

Destiny is a worrying concept. I don't want to be fated, I want to choose.

Man ultimately decides for himself! And in the end, education must be education towards the ability to decide

Do not accept any explanation of the world either through chance or determinism. You are not responsible for your belief. It is not even you who decides that you are not responsible - and so on to infinity. You are not obliged to believe. There is no point of departure.

If people deny free will, then when ordering at a restaurant they should say, "Just bring me whatever the laws of nature have determined that I will get."

You are free to choose. You are not free not to choose. No choice is a choice. You are free to choose but you are not free to choose the consequences of that choice.

"What we control," Juliette said, "is our actions once fate puts us there."

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

Everything is something you decide to do, and there is nothing you have to do.

Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.

The intuition of free will gives us the truth.

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.

You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.

We almost always have choices, and the better the choice, the more we will be in control of our lives.

Everyone has to make their own decisions. I still believe in that. You just have to be able to accept the consequences without complaining.