Ever wonder who coined the phrase, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way?”
The sentiment of this belief originated in 1640 in a collection of over 1,000 aphorisms gathered from several countries by Welsh-born poet and orator George Herbert.
The compilation, published in 1652 as part of Herbert’s Remains, 19 years after Herbert’s death at the age of 39, included many sayings repeated to this day. For example: “His bark is worse than his bite” and “Who is so deaf, as he that will not hear?”
The phrase, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” first appeared in the “New Monthly Magazine” in 1822, altered from its original 1640s version, “To him that will, ways are not wanting.”
So what exactly is this “will” that Herbert referred to?
Generally speaking, the will is the faculty of the mind that selects, at the moment of decision, from among a number of various desires.
Within philosophy (the study of general and fundamental questions), the will is important as one of the parts of the mind, along with reason and understanding. The will is considered central to the field of ethics or moral philosophy (concepts of right and wrong conduct) because of its role in enabling deliberate action.
Aristotle believed a person who acts against their better judgment–what they know to otherwise be true–does so due to weakness of will or what he termed a lack of self-mastery.
Aristotle further claimed a person with practical wisdom–implying both good judgment and excellence of character and habits, or practical virtue–cannot have the state of mind in which someone acts against their better judgment through weakness of will.
“While someone might appear to be wise,” cites Aristotle, “because of mere cleverness and the ability to recite words which might make them sound wise, like an actor or a drunk person reciting poetry,” they fail to exhibit the ability to discern reality.
In essence, a person lacking self-mastery may have knowledge, but has chosen to ignore it … simply not pay any attention to it. Instead, they are often governed by “hidden persuaders.”
René Descartes, often credited with being the “Father of Modern Philosophy,” suggested, “Error comes about because the will is not limited to judging things which the understanding is limited to.” Descartes described “the possibility of such judging or choosing things ignorantly, without understanding them.”
So, before I “torture one poor word ten thousand ways”–the will–allow me to make an observation:
The county’s present administration, which includes the majority of elected positions and certainly the county’s administrator, have consistently demonstrated they lack the will to make the hard decisions …decisions that don’t require taxpayer dollars to disentangle.
You might say, “Self-mastery is non-existent.”
Aristotle maintained, “Stubborn people are actually more like a person without self-mastery, because they are partly led by the pleasure coming from victory,”… victory over their constituents, in our case.
I’ll close by repeating two of the Welsh-born poet’s wise sayings, “Who is so deaf, as he that will not hear?” and “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
If only this group of administrators could find the will to reduce their unrestrained spending …
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics. At times the column is editorial in nature.
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