Quotes About Independence

Cathy had the one quality required of a great and successful criminal: she trusted no one, confided in no one. Her self was an island.

My old man didn't want me to read. He said I'd desert my own people. But I read anyway.

Even despotism does not produce its worst effects, so long as individuality exists under it; and whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called, and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes--will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.

Long Distance training can be a positive & constructive form of selfishness. After all, once you're at the starting line, you're there by yourself. No one can run a single step for you. No one can jump in & help you. No one but you can make the decisions about what to do to keep going. It's all up to you.

also on June 22nd JB vetoes the Homestead Bill...This bill, which proposes to give him (the honest poor man,...) land at an almost nominal price, out of the property of the government, will go far to demoralize the people and repress this noble spirit of independence. It may introduce among us those pernicious social theories which have proved so disastrous in other countries.

Don't read your reviews, A*M*E*R*I*C*A: you are the only land.

Four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but had been given the liberating notion that now I could teach myself.

I'm perpetual tourist, and that's the best way to travel. Nobody gets used to you, you make new friends without having to hear anyone's everyday problems, and you jet back still feeling like a know-it-all.

Lincoln himself once said, "The worst things you can do for those you love are the things they could and should do for themselves." He fiercely believed in self-sufficiency, and in the maturity and character that struggles and hardships can bring.

The worst things you can do for the ones you love are the things they could and should do for themselves"—and

Do not become too concerned about what others may think of you. Be very concerned about what you think of yourself.

Why can't we realize that it only weakens those we want to help when we do things for them that they should do for themselves?

Just keep moving forward and don't give a shit about what anybody thinks. Do what you have to do, for you.

Life's pretty good, and why wouldnt it be? I'm a pirate, after all.

What sort of Englishman is forever too busy for tea? The nose-to-the-grindstone sort, to begin with. The sort who gets ahead without connections, who makes something of himself without benefit of small talk or social lubrication or the seeking of personal kindnesses.

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession…. Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Self-Reliance

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." MBSR

Be a light unto yourself.

The interesting thing about this work is that we don't really do anything for them. If we tried, I think, we would fail miserably. Instead we invite them to do something radically new for themselves

In the end you only answer to yourself!

Faith as an intellectual state is self-reliance.

You have inherited (the) most from yourself, not from your family! The family is only a river through which Soul flows.

Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he's buying.