Claire Messud Quotes

He who believes in freedom of the will has never loved and never hated.

I'm in control of the positions that I allow myself to be in.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

I think the real free person in society is one that's disciplined. It's the one that can choose; that is the free one.

Men are not free when they are doing just what they like. The moment you can do just what you like, there is nothing you care about doing.

Well you don’t have to do it.

I'd much rather have the freedom, and the obligation to use it responsibly, than be put in a box.

Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners.

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.

I don't believe you outsource your convictions and principles to people.

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

No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.

Whether or not we establish freedom rests with ourselves.

I don't do nothing I don't want to do.

Unless someone truly has the power to say no, they never truly have the power to say yes.

I am very comfortable with the idea that we can override biology with free will.

I never concerned myself with other people's decisions.

Only by taking responsibility for oneself, to the greatest extent possible, can one ever be free, and only a free person can make responsible choices - between right and wrong, saving and spending, giving or taking.

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.

If I decide to be indecisive, that's my decision.

Our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from.

A character is a completely fashioned will.

One of the greatest gifts that God has given us is free will. Even though it's free, we don't take advantage of it as much as we could when it comes to matters of the heart.

We make our own future; we govern ourselves, and to govern is to choose.