{
  "type": "quote",
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  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-burgess/a-clockwork-orange/choice-he-has",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-burgess/a-clockwork-orange/choice-he-has.json",
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  "id": "cb337e90-0e35-4ef7-b6fc-a36f2753eba5",
  "slug": "choice-he-has",
  "text": "Choice... He has no real choice, has he? Self-interest, the fear of physical pain drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. Its insincerity was clearly to be seen. He ceases to be a wrongdoer. He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice.",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "Anthony Burgess",
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  "book": {
    "title": "A Clockwork Orange",
    "slug": "a-clockwork-orange",
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  "character": null,
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    {
      "name": "morality",
      "slug": "morality",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality"
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    {
      "name": "choices",
      "slug": "choices",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices"
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  "source": {
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    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange#Prison_Chaplain",
    "license": {
      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
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  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:15",
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    {
      "id": "fe65e0a9-b392-4b7d-aefa-55bc4e64e5f5",
      "slug": "the-attempt-to-impose",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-burgess/a-clockwork-orange/the-attempt-to-impose",
      "text": "\"The attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my sword-pen.\"",
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      "chapter": null,
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      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "freedom",
          "slug": "freedom",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom"
        },
        {
          "name": "human nature",
          "slug": "human-nature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange#Mr._Alexander",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
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      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:15"
    },
    {
      "id": "bb7ad7a1-ae86-41eb-af09-7a4a2a8b07ee",
      "slug": "when-a-man",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-burgess/a-clockwork-orange/when-a-man",
      "text": "\"When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.\"",
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      "chapter": null,
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      "topics": [
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          "name": "freedom",
          "slug": "freedom",
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        {
          "name": "choices",
          "slug": "choices",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices"
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      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange#Prison_Chaplain",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
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      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:15"
    },
    {
      "id": "8ccda9ef-077b-4c1a-adb1-733c446a9302",
      "slug": "my-son-my-son",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-burgess/a-clockwork-orange/my-son-my-son",
      "text": "My son, my son. When I had my son I would explain all that to him when he was starry enough to like understand. But then I knew he would not understand or would not want to understand at all and would do all the veshches [things] I had done...and I would not be able to really stop him. And nor would he be able to stop his own son, brothers. And so it would itty on to like the end of the world.",
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      "source": {
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        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthony_Burgess#A_Clockwork_Orange_(1962)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
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      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:15"
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}