You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act.

W. Clement Stone, the apostle of positive thought and relentless will, declared: “You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.” In these words resounds a mighty call to responsibility. For man is not a leaf blown helplessly by the winds of circumstance, but a being endowed with the sacred gift of choice.

The ancients too spoke of this freedom. The Stoics taught that while fortune may chain the body, the soul remains sovereign. The tyrant may command, the storm may rage, but within the secret citadel of the heart, the power to choose endures. To blame compulsion is to deny one’s dignity. To embrace choice, even in hardship, is to claim the mantle of true liberty.

Consider the story of Socrates, offered escape from prison if only he would renounce his path. Death awaited if he refused. Many would say he was “forced” to drink the hemlock. Yet Socrates himself declared it was his choice—better to die faithful to truth than to live in betrayal of his soul. Thus, even in chains, he stood freer than his captors. His life became eternal proof of Stone’s teaching: that man is never without power, so long as he remembers his freedom to choose.

Stone’s words strip away the excuses of the faint-hearted. To say “I had no choice” is to deceive oneself, to place blame upon the world instead of upon one’s own will. For every act, whether noble or base, is born from desire, from decision. Even submission to another’s demand is itself a choice, a yielding of one’s own power. In this way, responsibility is inescapable, and freedom unavoidable.

Let the generations remember: choice is both a gift and a burden. It is the forge where character is shaped, the battlefield where destiny is decided. Those who embrace it with courage rise as masters of themselves; those who deny it sink into chains of their own making. Stone’s teaching is therefore not merely advice but a summons: awaken, take hold of your will, and walk with the knowledge that every step you take is your own.