| Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. | | | |
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| | | NUMBER: | 1055 |
| AUTHOR: | Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) |
| QUOTATION: | True liberty consists only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Attributed to JONATHAN EDWARDS.—George Seldes, The Great Quotations, p. 220 (1966). Unverified.
In the editor’s introduction to Edwards’s Freedom of the Will, ed. Paul Ramsey, p. 12 (1957), is a succinct summary of a portion of Edwards’s definition of terms, part 1, section 5 (p. 164): “In other words, a man is free to do what he wills, but not to do what he does not will.” |
| SUBJECTS: | Liberty |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia | | |
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