This article attempts to gauge the effects of aspectuality in differentfields of knowledge. Greimas’s theory of modalities and Fontanille’sfurther developments provide all the tools to consider liminal phenomenasuch as the trouble of a subject torn by antinomic modalities, e.g. the Princess de Clèves whose individual aspirations (vouloir) are jammed (non–pouvoir) by social constraints (devoir). The complexity of this “modal tumult” led us to develop a semiotics of hesitation, deniedby society and politics prone to “demodalize the world” (Agamben), to deflate human capacitation (Cattapan). Arts seem the last shelter ofthe potestas, the place where hesitation and differing practices are stillallowed. Featuring feet in literature and plastic arts is a way to embodythis potency of inchoativity not doomed to teleological purposes butlegitimating the right to indecisiveness or the singularity of humanbehaviour.