Theme

Choice philosophy quotes

Choice is the hinge of agency: selecting among options under reasons, constraints, and uncertainty.

Why this theme matters

Free will, decision theory, and existential choice all ask how choosing is possible and what makes a choice one’s own.

In the history of philosophy

Aristotelian prohairesis, Stoic assent, existential commitment, and modern behavioral science offer overlapping vocabularies.

Thinkers in this collection

Aristotle , Friedrich Nietzsche , Søren Kierkegaard , Jean-Paul Sartre , Hannah Arendt , William James , Dante Alighieri , Confucius

Frequently asked questions

What is choice in philosophy?

It is the act of selecting among alternatives, often tied to responsibility and practical reason.

Are we free to choose?

Compatibilists, libertarians, and determinists disagree; many still affirm practical responsibility.

Where are philosophy quotes about choice?

See this theme alongside freedom, action, and responsibility.

  1. Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us.
  2. This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more…
  3. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
  4. Man is condemned to be free.
  5. Marry, and you will regret it; do not marry, and you will also regret it.
  6. In choosing himself, man chooses all men.
  7. It is possible to fail in many ways…but to succeed in only one.
  8. The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
  9. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
  10. Abandon all hope, you who enter here.
  11. The Master said: The resolute scholar and the man of ren will not seek life at the expense of ren; they may even sacrifice life to accomplish ren.
  12. Having become a pawn that has crossed the river, one can only press desperately forward.
  13. To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.