Would that my ability was equal to my inclination.
Abigail Adams (1744-1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797-1801)
Letter to John Quincy Adams (16 Feb 1786)
(Source)
Quotations about:
willingness
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
We are susceptible only to those suggestions with which we are already secretly in accord.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Modern Man in Search of a Soul, ch. 3 [tr. Dell & Baynes (1933)]
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[τὸ μὲν πνεῦμα πρόθυμον ἡ δὲ σὰρξ ἀσθενής.]
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Matthew 26:41 (Jesus) [JB (1966)]
(Source)
Chiding Peter, John, and James for falling asleep. This passage is paralleled in Mark 14:38.
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[KJV (1611)]The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[GNT (1976)]The spirit is willing enough, but human nature is weak.
[NJB (1985)]The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak.
[CEB (2011)]The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind.
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) American writer
To My Daughters, with Love, ch. 15 “Men and Women” (1967)
(Source)
The National Security Strategy defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against innocents” (p. 5). This is truly a distinct kind of violence, but to imply by the word “terrorism” that this sort of terror is the work exclusively of “terrorists” is misleading. The “legitimate” warfare of technologically advanced nations likewise is premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against innocents. The distinction between the intention to perpetrate violence against innocents, as in “terrorism,” and the willingness to do so, as in “war,” is not a source of comfort.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (2003-02-09), “A Citizen’s Response,” sec. 1, paid advertisment, New York Times
(Source)
The essay, including this passage, was also published in a longer form in Orion Magazine (2003-03/04), and collected in his Citizenship Papers (2003). In the latter, the second sentence is extended:This is truly a distinct kind of violence, but it is a kind old and familiar, even in the United States. All that was really new about the events of September 11, 2001, was that they raised the scale of such violence to that of "legitimate" modern warfare. To imply ...
Study depends on the good will of the student, a quality that cannot be secured by compulsion.
[Studium discendi voluntate, quae cogi non potest, constat.]
Quintilian (39-90) Roman orator [Marcus Fabius Quintilianus]
De Institutione Oratoria, Book 3, ch. 8
