Socrates: “Every wrongful act stems from ignorance, and the mind does not commit errors.”

Ignorance isn’t the only reason men do wrong. Some know better and still take the bad road because it’s easy, because it pays, because they want to. The mind isn’t perfect. It fools itself. It justifies what it shouldn’t. A man can stare truth in the face and still turn away.

Aristotle: “Most human actions arise from the non-rational parts of the soul.”

Men don’t live by reason alone. They act from hunger, from fear, from things buried deep. They tell themselves they have reasons, but often, it’s just the body talking. It’s the old instincts, the old habits, the pull of comfort. A man fights this or he doesn’t.

Spinoza: “Desires are the source of actions, and the mind succumbs to the power of desire.”

Desire is a hard thing. It moves men. It makes them weak, makes them strong, makes them fools. But the mind isn’t helpless. A man can turn his back on desire. He can hold the line. He can train himself to want better things. But it takes work. It takes knowing himself.

Schopenhauer: “Human actions cannot be predicted, for they stem from a blind, purposeless will.”

Men aren’t leaves in the wind. They have patterns. They have ways. If you watch them long enough, you see it. They think they act on a whim, but their past, their nature, their choices—these things steer them. The world is not blind. It just doesn’t care.

Freud: “The mind manifests as an influential actor when satisfying instincts; all human actions have instinctual roots.”

Instinct runs deep, but a man is more than hunger and lust. He can choose. He can suffer for something bigger. He can walk away from what his body screams for. Some men do. Some men don’t. That’s what makes the difference.

Dostoevsky: “Man does not act out of knowledge as much as he does out of habit.”

A man is his habits more than his thoughts. He may know better, but he will still wake, eat, drink, and sin as he always has. Change is slow. Hard. Some never do it. They live the same day over and over until they die.

Nietzsche: “The mind that does not destroy the old world—the world entrenched in the depths of the universal mind—is slavery. The mind tethered to a stake…”

If a man never breaks the chains of old ideas, he stays a slave. The world is built on the past, but a man must tear it down if it holds him back. He must burn the old gods, the old rules, and make his own way. Otherwise, he is not free.