Quotes About Independence

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that there are always men who like to feel a natural superiority which is not dependent on accomplish­ment and does not need to be proved.

I'm starting to realize that I can't be a child forever, that I don't want to be a child forever. I've had my turn, and now it's time to grow up.

What other people think about me is not my business.

The only unavailable choice was whether or not to have Parkinson's. Everything else was up to me.

Leaders who promote a questioning culture in their organizations move people from dependence to independence.

Government may not interfere with individual liberty in order to protect a person from himself, or to impose the majority's beliefs about how best to live. The only actions for which a person is accountable to society, Mill argues, are those that affect others. As long as I am not harming anyone else, my "independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign."19

Teachers did not give knowledge and wisdom; they merely guided those who sought those things for themselves.

I want to wake up every day and do whatever comes in my mind, and not feel pressure or obligations to do anything else in my life.

In modern societies, some members of ethnic minority groups do not want to feel compelled to heed the voices of their communities when participating as citizens.

The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by your own.

The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by other people's rules, while quietly playing by your own.

Cats don't think they're owned by anybody. Even behind doors and windows, like amiable Wally, they're free. Always. That may, in fact, be the most important thing about them.

Writers are always outsiders and probably ought to be, since only outsiders see things clearly: the people who publish them, or make movies, or produce plays are always richer and more powerful, however successful the writer is.

Even now, running for the most powerful position on the planet, a job that relies almost entirely on the power to persuade those around you, a job heavy on running a team and winning loyalty, even now Donald J. Trump said he made most of his decisions by himself, consulting no one: "I understand life," he said. "And I understand how life works. I'm the Lone Ranger." He

There is nothing harder than being your own rock.

You raise them half-decent, and they grow up and leave. They move to Miami or California-- someplace with gourmet groceries and nude beaches because you've reared them to cook good and be liberal minded. It's just the opposite with your failures-- them kids stick to your tail like a cocklebur. You'd think it would be the other way around, but it's not. No matter how old I get, this will always amaze me.

You not trapped girl. Not unless you nailed to the floor.

Those who need leaders are not qualified to choose them.

My position is that Rand doesn't have all the right answers, but she does have all the right questions

Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, by an Englishwoman named Isabella Bird.

What's the matter with us anyhow? If America ever loses confidence in herself, she will retain the confidence of no one, and she will lose her chance to be free, because the fearful are never free. —ADLAI STEVENSON, 1954

The pursuit of perfection is far too important to be handed over to the control and direction of a set of people who by blood, force or election have acquired the right to call themselves 'governors'.

to think nothing about the opinion of his society (if he be in any sense a member) is to be unconsciously influenced by it.

She had grown older. And he loved her more now than he had loved her when he understood her better, when she was the product of her parents. What she was now was what she herself had decided to become.