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  • Where there's a will, there's a way
    Where there's a will, there's a way
    If you want something badly enough, you can find the means to get it.
  • where there's a will, there's a way
    where there's a will, there's a way
    If one really wants to do something, one can. For example, Max has no idea of how to get the money to repair his boat, but where there's a will. This proverb was stated slightly differently in 1640 (To him that will, ways are not wanting) but has been repeated in its present form since the early 1800s. It is so well known it is often shortened, as in the example.

Where there's a will, there's a way

Cultural  
  1. If you want something badly enough, you can find the means to get it.


where there's a will, there's a way Idioms  
  1. If one really wants to do something, one can. For example, Max has no idea of how to get the money to repair his boat, but where there's a will. This proverb was stated slightly differently in 1640 (To him that will, ways are not wanting) but has been repeated in its present form since the early 1800s. It is so well known it is often shortened, as in the example.


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Where there’s a will, there’s a way to achieve far more successful recycling rates than the dismal performance in New York and most of the country.

From New York Times Apr. 14, 2010

Where there’s a will there’s a way; and as we have no other tools we must do the best we can with our knives.

From Owen Hartley; or, Ups and Downs A Tale of Land and Sea by William Henry Giles Kingston

"Where there's a will there's a way, you know."

From The Grammar School Boys Snowbound or, Dick & Co. at Winter Sports by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock

Where there's a will, there's a way, you know.'

From Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

"Where there's a will there's a way," was Uncle John's favorite maxim, and certainly he had reason to believe in the truth of it, for he succeeded in everything he undertook.

From The Young Emigrants; Madelaine Tube; the Boy and the Book; and Crystal Palace by Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick

And where there’s a will, there’s a way.

From Slate Mar. 24, 2026

I’m just hoping where there’s a will, there’s a way.

From Salon Apr. 8, 2025

Indeed, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 15, 2025

He argued that all too often, promises made at global summits were not met, but he insisted that "where there's a will, there's a way".

From BBC Aug. 3, 2023

There's an old maxim about where there's a will there's a way.

From Wells Brothers The Young Cattle Kings by Andy Adams

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