Quotes About Independence

When there is nothing left to lose, we find the true self—the self that is whole, the self that is enough, the self that no longer looks to others for definition, or completion, or anything but companionship on the journey.

My advice is, the next time you see someone you think you need to rescue, walk quickly away on the far side of the street.

Independence of vision is a good thing," Dorrin said. "So is thinking. But speaking and acting well require reflection—consideration.

She did not want to be Bilong's mother, or her grandmother. She had done with these roles, with being a good child, a good wife, a good mother. She had put seventy-odd years into it; she had worked hard at it; now she wanted to be that Ofelia who painted and carved and sang in an old cracked voice with strange creatures and their stranger music. The

my nature does not lend itself to the meekness required of a wife in our society. I could not endure a man who would let himself be ruled by me, and I would not endure a man who tried to rule me.

why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself!

The cat required far less attendance than a human child, which is one of the reasons why spinster ladies prefer felines to babies.

he never comes to see us unless he wants something. Find out what it is, tell him "no," and let us be off.

could not endure a man who would let himself be ruled by me, and I would not endure a man who tried to rule me. However

But why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself!

Its best to turn to no one, to seek to please no one, as if there were only oneself in the world. The pleasure of others is a by-product after all, and if ever the whispering voices are allowed to crowd out the one voice, the result is this...a sort of high-pitched silliness, a terrible silliness.

The disaster of being old was in not feeling safe to venture anywhere, of seeing freedom put out of reach.

It cannot be right to be the slave of one's household gods, and I protest that if my furniture ever annoyed me by wanting to be dusted when I wanted to be doing something else, and there was no one to do the dusting for me, I would cast it all into the nearest bonfire and sit and warm my toes at the flames with great contentment, triumphantly selling my dusters to the very next pedlar who was weak enough to buy them. Parsons

A great need of something to lean on, and a great weariness of independence and responsibility took possession of my soul; and looking round for support and comfort in that transitory mood, the emptiness of the present and the blankness of the future sent me back to the past with all its ghosts.

But we found San Salvatore, said Mrs. Arbuthnot, and it is rather silly that Mrs. Fisher should behave as if it belonged only to her. What is rather silly, said Mrs. Wilkins with much serenity, is to mind. I can't see the least point in being in authority at the price of one's liberty.

Lotty, who never wanted anything of anybody, but was complete in herself and respected other people's completeness?

This separate life, this freezing loneliness, she had had enough of it. Why shouldn't she too be happy? Why on earth—the energetic expression matched her mood of rebelliousness—shouldn't she too be loved and allowed to love?

Si, d'aventure, il prenait à mes meubles la fantaisie de se faire épousseter le jour où j'aurais quelque chose de plus intéressant à faire, je revendique hautement le droit de les précipiter tous dans le feu de joie le plus proche, de m'établir près du brasier et d'y réchauffer gaiement mes pieds glacés après avoir vendu tous mes chiffons au premier chineur venu.

There came a moment, she imagined, in the lives of most unmarried daughters, and perhaps in other people's too, when they must either bolt or go permanently under.

There is no help, except what you dig out of your own self; and if I could make you see that I would have shown you all the secrets of life.

What Susie cannot grasp is that for Anna, to achieve her independence from living off Susie's money through marrying a rich man, she is merely exchanging one form of enslavement for another and all within a social set that bores Anna to distraction.

FLY THE PLANE, MADDIE.

And I envied her that she had chosen her work herself and was doing what she wanted to do. I don't suppose I had any idea what I 'wanted' and so I was chosen, not choosing. There's glory and honor in being chosen. But not much room for free will.

Bitch: In praise of difficult women.