Quotes About Independence

I was sixteen and my mother was about to throw me out of the house forever, for breaking a very big rule, even bigger than the forbidden books. The rule was not just No Sex, but definitely No Sex With Your Own Sex.

I was in those days all about the 'fuck you'. Fuck you for not recognising how great I am. I'll do it myself.

Being free is not being powerful or rich or well regarded or without obligations but being able to love.

I have sometimes sacrificed freedom in order to belong, but more often I have given up all hope of belonging.

St. Paul said it is better to marry than to burn, but my mother taught me it is better to burn than to marry.

Mrs Ratlow was a widow, and she was head of English, but she still did all the cooking and cleaning for her two sons, and she never took holidays because she said -- and I will never forget it -- When a woman alone is no longer of any interest to the opposite sex, she is only visible where she has some purpose.

I came to this city to escape.

There are times when it will go so wrong that you will barely be alive, and times when you realise that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms.

A woman who slaves for a man does not have a marriage; she has a master.

If you can't survive in this world, you had better make a world of your own.

I would cross seas and suffer sunstroke and give away all I have, but not for a man, because they want to be the destroyer and never be destroyed.

our outside loo, known as the Betty, was a good loo; whitewashed and compact with a flashlight hanging behind the door. I smuggled books in there to read them in secret, claiming constipation.

In this life you have to be your own hero. By that I mean you have to win whatever it is that matters to you by your own strength and in your own way.

Free will depends on being stronger than the moment that traps you.

When a woman alone is no longer of any interest to the opposite sex, she is only visible where she has some purpose.

For myself, with no one to love, a hedgehog spirit seemed best and I hid my heart in the leaves.

You are stubborn,' said Roger Nowell. 'I am not tame,' said Alice Nutter.

If you want to keep your own teeth, make your own sandwiches

Mi piace il modo in cui i gatti amano stare un po' dentro e un po' fuori, per assecondare sia il loro lato domestico sia quello selvatico, e anch'io mi sento selvatica e domestica. Posso stare in casa, ma solo se la porta è aperta.

Take no notice of anyone you don't respect.

MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.

Liberty may be gained, but can never be recovered. (Bk2:8)

Man's first law is to watch over his own preservation; his first care he owes to himself; and as soon as he reaches the age of reason, he becomes the only judge of the best means to preserve himself; he becomes his own master.

I am not worried about pleasing clever minds or fashionable people. In every period there will be men fated to be governed by the opinions of their century, their country, and their society. For that very reason, a freethinker or philosopher today would have been nothing but a fanatic at the time of the League.* One must not write for such readers, if one wishes to live beyond one's own age.