“The free being with absolute freedom proposes to itself certain ends. It wills because it wills, and the willing of an object is itself the last ground of such willing. Thus we have previously determined a free being, and any other determination would destroy the conception of an Ego, or of a free being. Now, if it could be so arranged that the willing of an unlawful end would necessarily — in virtue of an always effective law — result in the very reverse of that end, then the unlawful will would always ANNIHILATE ITSELF. A person could not will that end for the very reason because he did will it; his unlawful will would become the ground of its own annihilation, as the will is indeed always its own last ground.”

—  Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Source: The Science of Rights 1796, p. 193

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The free being with absolute freedom proposes to itself certain ends. It wills because it wills, and the willing of an …" by Johann Gottlieb Fichte?
Johann Gottlieb Fichte photo
Johann Gottlieb Fichte 102
German philosopher 1762–1814

Related quotes

Jean Paul Sartre photo

“A man who belongs to some communist or revolutionary society wills certain concrete ends, which imply the will to freedom, and that freedom is willed in community. We will freedom for freedom’s sake, and in and through the particular circumstances. And in thus willing freedom, we discover that it depends entirely upon the freedom of others and that the freedom of others depends upon our own.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Source: Existentialism Is a Humanism (1946), pp. 51-52

Ayn Rand photo

“every man is free to rise as far as he's able or willing, but the degree to which he thinks determines the degree to which he'll rise.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

“The slave-owner is at times visited with a nightmare. He finds that his free will, in spite of its freedom, is thwarted, not by a superior will but by things-in-themselves – by inferior wills, accidents, mistakes, and his own ignorance. Yet he is still unable to conceive his will except as being thwarted like that of his slave’s by another will, and since he the master is so thwarted, might not even the world’s master and his – God Himself – be thwarted in his volition by some grand over-riding will, by Will-in-Itself? This is the slaveowning conception of Moira, or Fate, a comparatively late development reaching its noblest expression in Greek tragedy. This Fate, in spite of its closeness to bourgeois determinism, betrays its slave-owning parentage by the fact that it is always visualised as a consciously forseeing Will, and always as thwarting, not determining human wills as well as events, but interfering with human wills by means of events.”

Christopher Caudwell (1907–1937) British Marxist literary critic, journalist and writer

Further Studies in a Dying Culture (1949), Chapter IV: Consciousness: A Study in Bourgeois Psychology

Susan Sontag photo

“Being in Love means being willing to ruin yourself for the other person.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980

“The feeling of having free will is deep in us and we are reluctant to give it up for ourselves—but we are often willing to deny it to others!”

Richard Hamming (1915–1998) American mathematician and information theorist

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)

Flannery O’Connor photo

“… free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply.”

Flannery O’Connor book Wise Blood

Source: Wise Blood

Johann Gottlieb Fichte photo

“He who must still exhort himself, and be exhorted, to will the good, has as yet no firm and ever-ready will, but wills a will anew every time he needs it. But he who has such a stable will, wills what he wills for ever, and cannot under any circumstances will otherwise than he always wills. For him freedom of the will is destroyed and swallowed up in necessity.”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte book Address to the German Nation

General Nature of New Eduction p 21
Addresses to the German Nation (Reden an die deutsche Nation) 1808, Second Address

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“There is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Source: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Paulo Coelho photo

“About the nature of human beings. I discovered that confronted by temptation, we will always fall. Given the right circumstances, every human being on this earth would be willing to commit evil.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Anthony de Mello photo

“The best things in life cannot be willed into being.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Source: One Minute Nonsense (1992), p. 114

Related topics