I had to.

July 30, 2018 4:27 PM

There‘s a famous quote to the effect of ‚actions that are done out of free will are actually the ones where you felt like you didn’t have a choice but to do the thing, you just got up and did it.‘ What is the actual quote?

Gah, this has been driving me crazy for weeks. Google fails me. Sartre, or someone entirely different? Hope me!

posted by The Toad to Religion & Philosophy (4 answers total)

There are a few quotes to that effect (and the opposite) here. Some samples:

“No one has free will until they are an adult, and by then the choices that were made for them, have already set them on a course that gives limited freedom in the choices to be made.”
― J.D. Stroube, Caged in Darkness

“Free-will doesn't include shit-happens,
unless that's the goal of one's intention.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please.”
― Karl Marx

“...we are concluding falsely that we can deduce the justification, the rational admissibility of displeasure, from the fact that it exists; and from this false deduction Schopenhauer arrives at his fantastic conclusion of so-called intelligible freedom. But displeasure after the deed need not be rational at all: in fact, it certainly is not rational, for it rests on the erroneous assumption that the deed did not have to follow necessarily. Thus, because he thinks he is free (but not because he is free), man feels remorse and the pangs of conscience.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human
posted by bunderful at 7:06 PM on July 30, 2018

And this one:

“Honestly, I cannot understand what people mean when they talk about the freedom of the human will. I have a feeling, for instance, that I will something or other; but what relation this has with freedom I cannot understand at all. I feel that I will to light my pipe and I do it; but how can I connect this up with the idea of freedom? What is behind the act of willing to light the pipe? Another act of willing? Schopenhauer once said: Der Mensch kann was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will (Man can do what he will but he cannot will what he wills).”
― Albert Einstein
posted by bunderful at 7:07 PM on July 30, 2018

Re-reading the question I see none of these really convey the idea you were looking for. Dangit.
posted by bunderful at 7:09 PM on July 30, 2018

"A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants"
— Arthur Schopenhauer
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 4:28 PM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]