Quotes About Independence

How good it felt to be alone, stacking blocks. That's what came to him again, a kind of weight solidifying in his chest: how much he had loved to be alone - to be outside of his own life, a giant, sentient cloud looming over his imaginary city, hovering above it. There was a certain kind of blank omniscience that felt like his true self, at last.

There's a rare few that are able to drift through life without being owned by someone.

The old man bridled at this. All his life he had gone out of his way to avoid any situation that might be mistaken for a friendship.

And then Robinson Crusoe stripped naked, swam out to his ship, filled his pockets with biscuits, and swam back to shore.... What? I said, hefting my pack and frowning at the child. Nothing, she said, getting to her feet. Just an old preHegira book that Uncle Martin used to read to me. He used to say that proofreaders have always been incompetent assholes-even 1400 years ago.

You've had your chance, Richard. Scott's a big boy now, and if he wants to spend a few years chanting mantras and giving away his lunch money to some bearded horse's ass with a Jehovah Complex, well, you've had your chance to help him, so what do you say you just get on with your screwed-up life, Richard E. Baedecker

If someone comes I go out to meet him but not for his sake

I want a stable man in my life. One who will be there, but will give me enough room to be free, to breathe, to live. And one I can love, but not sacrifice my soul for.

What she doesn't realize is that I have survived for her as well -- and only now am I beginning to survive for myself.

Freedom is anxiety's petri dish. If routine blunts anxiety, freedom incubates it. Freedom says, Even if you don't want to make choices, you have to, and you can never be sure you have chosen correctly. Freedom says, Even not to choose is to choose. Freedom says, So long as you are aware of your freedom, you are going to experience the discomfort that freedom brings. Freedom says, You're on your own. Deal with it.

Even the imperative to make choice after choice without clear guidance - allegedly the most nerve-wracking part of the profession - isn't exclusive to writing.

Chi si lamenta della fatica, se sa di lavorare per la conquista della propria libertà?

But I, that was born to be my own destroyer...

we baked all our own bread;

Carol Gilligan points to as a key disparity between the sexes: boys take pride in a lone, tough-minded independence and autonomy, while girls see themselves as part of a web of connectedness. Thus boys are threatened by anything that might challenge their independence, while girls are more threatened by a rupture in their relationships.

Anatomically the emotional system can act independently of the neocortex," LeDoux told me. "Some emotional reactions and emotional memories can be formed without any conscious, cognitive participation at all.

Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.

The screen shows me Portugal. The screen shows me Cairo. They have a thing where you can wander the streets. I can go anywhere I want is what the screen keeps telling me. Try this. Try there. Go around here. The world's wide open. You can wander anyplace and you'll be alone there, too.

I don't have to answer to you," Adam said, instantly and harshly. He brushed his pants off like he'd just buried his mother.

You don't say," Helena said. She took a cigarette out of her ripped purse and lit it because she smoked. She was a smoker.

There comes a point in a man's life when he has to take control of things. Otherwise, things will just keep controlling him.

The answer can't be found in books - or be solved by bringing it to other people. Not unless you want to remain a child all your life. You've got to find the answer inside you - feel the right thing to do. Charlie, you've got to learn to trust yourself

But with the freedom came a sadness.

I wanted to get up and show everyone what a fool he was, to shout at him: I'm a human being, a person - with parents and memories and a history - and I was before you wheeled me into that operating room!

Are you content? If so, you can afford to ignore the condemnation of the crowd.