For by the will of the gods Fate hath held sway since ancient days.

-Aeschylus
Persae, l.102 (translated by H  Weir Smyth).

Candida me docuit nigras odisse puellas. Odero si potero. Si non, invitus amabo. A white girl instructed me to hate black girls. I shall hate them if I can. If not, I shall love themöagainst my will.

-Anonymous
c.1c  AD  Graffito found in Pompeii. In Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum I V,1520.

If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves? as they must be if the being subjected to the inconsistent, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of men, be the perfect condition of slavery? and if the essence of freedom consists, as our masters say it does, in having a standing rule to live by? And why is slavery so much condemnedandstroveagainst inonecase, andsohighly applauded, and held so necessary and so sacred in another?

-Astell, Mary
  Some Reflections upon MarriageOccasion'd by the Duke and Duchess of Mazarine's Case which is also consider'd, preface (1706 edn).

L'amour a son instinct, il sait trouver le chemin du coeur comme le plus faible insecte marche a'   sa fleur avec une irre¤  sistible volonte¤   qui ne s'e¤  pouvante de rien. Love has its own instinct. It knows how to find the road to the heart just as the weakest insect moves towarditsflowerbyanirresistiblewillwhichfearsnothing.

-Balzac, Honore¤   de
  La Femme de trente ans.

Nos beaux sentiments ne sont-ils pas les poe¤  sies de la volonte¤  ? Aren't our best feelings poetry of the will?

-Balzac, Honore¤   de
  Le Pe'  re Goriot.

John Stuart Mill, By a mighty effort of will, Overcame his natural bonhomie And wrote'Principles of Political Economy'.

-Bentley, Edmund Clerihew
  Biography for Beginners,'John Stuart Mill'.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Matthew 7:21.

And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said,Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Matthew12:49^50.

Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Luke 22:42.

To will is present with me; but how to perform that which isgood I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Romans 7:19.

Not with eyeservice, asmenpleasers; but astheservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Ephesians 6:6^7.

He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still.

-Butler, Samuel
  Hudibras, pt.3, canto 3, l.547.

You committed holy rapes upon our will.

-Carew,Thomas
  'An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul's, Dr.  John Donne'.

Idonot likebeingmoved:for thewill isexcited;andaction Is a most dangerous thing: I tremble for something factitious, Some malpractice of heart and illegitimate process; We are so proneto thesethings with our terrible notions of duty.

-Clough, Arthur Hugh
  Amours de Voyage, canto 2, pt.11.

He holds him with his glittering eyeö The Wedding-Guest stood still, And listens like a three years'child: The Mariner hath his will. The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: He cannot choose but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, The bright-eyed Mariner.

-Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
  'The Rime of the  Ancient Mariner', pt.1.

You promise heavens free from strife, Pure truth, and perfect change of will; But sweet, sweet is this human life, So sweet, I fain would breathe it still; Your chilly stars I can forgo, This warm kind world is all I know.

-Cory,William originally  WilliamJohnson
  Ionica, Poems,'Mimnermus in Church'.

E'n la sua voluntade e'   nostra pace. In His will is our peace.

-Dante Alighieri originally Durante
c.1320  Divina Commedia,'Paradiso', canto 3, l.85.

'Youarefettered,'said Scrooge, trembling.'Tell mewhy?' 'I wear the chain I forged in life,'replied the Ghost.'I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.'

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
  A Christmas Carol, stave1.

Some weigh their pleasure by their lust, Their wisdom by their rage of will, Their treasure is their only trust; And cloake'  d craft their store of skill. But all the pleasure that I find Is to maintain a quiet mind.

-Dyer, Sir Edward
  'In Praise of a Contented Mind'.

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly But merely vans to beat the air The air which is now thoroughly small and dry Smaller and dryer than the will.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  'Ash Wednesday'.