"Suppose you do want to acquire a want you haven’t got. The question is, where did the first want—the want for a want—come from? It seems it was just there, just a given, not something you chose or engineered. It was just there, like most of your preferences ... The question just re-arises: Where did that want come from? You certainly can’t go on... See more

"You are free to do what you want, but where do your wants come from? ... Where is the freedom in doing what one wants when one's wants are the product of prior causes —which one cannot inspect, and therefore could not choose, and one had absolutely no hand in creating? ... We can't choose what we choose in life. When it seems that we choose what... See more