[Ads-l] Urgent Need for Examples of "Bumper Stickered" Quotations

[dave at WILTON.NET]

I've never seen this on an actual bumper sticker, but "one can choose what
to do, but not what to want," which is often attributed to Einstein, is a
mangling of Schopenhauer's “Über die Freiheit des Menschlichen Willens
(1839):

Ich kann thun was ich will: ich kann, wenn ich will, Alles was ich habe
den Armen geben und dadurch selbst einer werden,—wenn ich will!—
aber ich vermag nicht, es zu wollen; weil die entgegenstehenden Motive
viel zu viel Gewalt über mich haben, als dass ich es könnte. Hingegen
wenn ich einen anderen Charakter hätte, und zwar in dem Maaße, daß ich
ein Heiliger wäre, dann würde ich es wollen können; dann aber würde ich
auch nicht umhin können, es zu wollen, würde es also thun müssen.

(I can do what I will: I can, if I will it so, give all I have to the poor
and
thereby become one of them myself—if I will it so!—but I cannot will it
so, because the conflicting motives have too much power over me to be
able to. However, if I had another character, and to the extent that I were
a
saint, then I would be able to will it so, but then I would not be able to
help but will it so, and so would have to do it.)

Einstein once referred to this Schopenhauer passage in an interview, which
is perhaps how he got associated with it.

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of
Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2020 3:14 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Urgent Need for Examples of "Bumper Stickered" Quotations

I have an urgent need to find a good example of a quotation that has been
"bumper stickered."  I think the person who asked me this must mean a quote
whose wording or meaning has been dumbed down so as to be suitable for a
popular bumper sticker.  Can anyone suggest to me examples of this, ASAP?

Fred Shapiro

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