Lady Bracknell, Act III
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
“Free choice is a very precious thing.”
Around the World with Nellie Bly by Emily Hahn
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Emily Hahn 5
American writer 1905–1997Related quotes
“The history of free men is never really written by chance - but by choice. Their choice.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
(1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)
Address in Pittsburgh http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/education/bsa/citizenship_merit_badge/eisenhower_citizenship_quotations.pdf (9 October 1956)
1950s
Henry Adams
(1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist
Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (1904)
Context: Experience proved that man's power of choice in action was very far from absolute, and logic seemed to require that every choice should have some predetermining cause which decided the will to act. Science affirmed that choice was not free,— could not be free,— without abandoning the unity of force and the foundation of law. Society insisted that its choice must be left free, whatever became of science or unity. Saint Thomas was required to illustrate the theory of liberum arbitrium by choosing a path through these difficulies, where path there was obviously none.
“The church of my choice is the free, open world.”
Source: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (1974), Chapter 13 (p. 124)
“We must believe in free will — we have no choice.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer
(1902–1991) Polish-born Jewish-American author
An ironic statement which Singer made in many interviews over many years; here quoted in "Isaac Singer’s Promised City" http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_3_urbanities-isaac.html City Journal (Summer 1997)
Variants or variant translations:
We must believe in free will — we have no other choice.
You must believe in free will; there is no choice.
We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice.
This makes more sense if you consider the statement "we must believe in free will; we have no [other logical] choice"