George WeigelHomo voluntatis cannot explain why some things that can be done should not be done.
About This Quote
This is one of the most famous statements in moral philosophy. It was made by Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist. It is used to show that there are certain actions which are morally right or wrong even if they are not forbidden by any law or moral code. Such actions may be called “free choices” because they are committed freely, without coercion. Pascal’s maxim is controversial because it seems to imply that some people are free to choose to do things that are morally wrong.
It also seems to suggest that it is possible for someone to make a mistake in deciding what something is morally right or wrong. This contradiction forms the basis of the question: “Are human beings moral agents?”
Some Similar Quotes
- There was beauty in the idea of freedom, but it was an illusion. Every human heart was chained by love.
- Freely we serve Because we freely love, as in our will To love or not; in this we stand or fall.
- He offered her the world. She said she had her own.
- You are my butterfly and refuse to set you free.
- From the first day I met her, she was the only woman to me. Every day of that voyage I loved her more, and many a time since have I kneeled down in the darkness of the night watch and kissed the deck of that...