Quotes About Self-reliance

The person has to learn to derive his self-esteem more from within himself and less from the opinions of others; he has to try to base it on real qualities and capacities, things he can make or do

Even if men admit they are cowards, they still want to be saved. There is no harmonious development, no child-rearing program, no self-reliance that would take away from men their need for a beyond on which to base the meaning of their lives.

everybody has to think and see for himself, or the nations are doomed.

Freud—like all of us—was caught in. To melt oneself trustingly into the father, or the father-substitute, or even the Great Father in the sky, is to abandon the causa-sui project, the attempt to be father of oneself. And if you abandon that you are diminished, your destiny is no longer your own; you are the eternal child making your way in the world of the elders.

I try not to borrow, first you borrow then you beg.

I think perhaps I can too. But I try not to borrow. First you borrow. Then you beg.

Clearly I miss Him, having been brought up in religion. But now a man must be responsible to himself.

The more I'm let alone and not worried the better I can function.

You have to make it inside of yourself wherever you are.

It would be better alone, anything is better alone but I don't think I can handle it alone.

But I try not to borrow. First you borrow. Then you beg.

That's easy. I can always borrow two dollars and a half." "I think perhaps I can too. But I try not to borrow. First you borrow. Then you beg.

I wish I had a stone for the knife," the old man said after he had checked the lashing on the oar butt. "I should have brought a stone." You should have brought many things, he thought. But you did not bring them, old man. Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

He did not want any consequences. He did not want any consequences ever again. He wanted to live along without consequences.

You'll not fish without eating while I'm alive.

You have to make it inside of yourself wherever you are. You are doing all right at that here.

But you haven't got the boy, he thought. You have only yourself...

looked at the tires carefully, looking for cuts or stone bruises. Everything seemed in good condition. It evidently made no difference whether I was there to look after things or not.

I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

One of the powerful attributes of secrecy is its function as a portal for autonomy and control.

I do not want you children to use my untimely death, or any setback that life may deliver, as an excuse not to take responsibility for yourselves.

What burdens we lay on the dying, Laurel thought, as she listened now to the accelerated rain on the roof: seeking to prove some little thing that we can keep to comfort us when they can no longer feel--something as incapable of being kept as of being proved: the lastingness of memory, vigilance against harm, self-reliance, good hope, trust in one another.

I was always my own teacher.

If we have to have motors to help us fly, it's no longer natural. People call this progress, but there's nothing progressive about walking with crutches. Soon we shall forget to walk, too, if we don't look out.