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Full Idea
Since actions and performances are not wholly in our power and since nothing is really in our power but our will - it is on the will that all the rules and duties of Man are based and established.
Gist of Idea
Rules and duties are based on the will, as that is all we control
Source
Michel de Montaigne (I.7 Our deeds are judged by intention [1580], p.0028)
Book Ref
Montaigne,Michel de: 'The Complete Essays', ed/tr. Screech,M.A. [Penguin 1987], p.28
A Reaction
This is almost Kant's claim that the only truly good thing is a good will (e.g. Idea 3711). Aristotle disagrees, because a virtuous person should also have good desires. We may will to have good desires, but virtue requires actually having them.
Related Idea
Idea 3711 Only a good will makes us worthy of happiness [Kant]
| 7496 | Rules and duties are based on the will, as that is all we control [Montaigne] |
| 23122 | Montaigne was the founding father of liberalism [Montaigne, by Gopnik] |
| 20479 | People at home care far more than soldiers risking death about the outcome of wars [Montaigne] |
| 20480 | There is not much point in only becoming good near the end of your life [Montaigne] |
| 20482 | Virtue inspires Stoics, but I want a good temperament [Montaigne] |
| 20481 | Nothing we say can be worse than unsaying it in the face of authority [Montaigne] |
| 7495 | Apart from the fear, dying is an easy duty [Montaigne] |
| 6258 | Virtue is the distinctive mark of truth, and its greatest product [Montaigne] |
| 6259 | Why can't a wise man doubt everything? [Montaigne] |
| 6260 | Sceptics say there is truth, but no means of making or testing lasting judgements [Montaigne] |
| 6261 | The soul is in the brain, as shown by head injuries [Montaigne] |
| 6262 | We lack some sense or other, and hence objects may have hidden features [Montaigne] |
| 6263 | No wisdom could make us comfortably walk a wide beam if it was high in the air [Montaigne] |
| 22269 | We must fight fiercely to hang on to the few pleasures which survive into old age [Montaigne] |