Quotes About Independence

So I was a monster, she thought. At least I wasn't someone's little sister, someone's girlfriend, some sophomore, some girl—someone whose opinions don't matter.

Lots of girls don't notice when they are in this situation. They are so focused on their boyfriends that they don't remember they had a life at all before their romances, so they don't become upset that the boyfriend isn't interested.

It is better to be alone, she figures, than to be with someone who can't see who you are.

I flinch. "Don't feel sorry for me, okay? Not ever. It makes my skin crawl.

And in the end, after he broke up with me and I was sad and mental, I came to the Vineyard and one day I thought: Eff you, Mr. Isaac. I'm not so very ignorant. I just know stuff about stuff that you dismiss as unimportant and useless. Does that make sense?

I am not someone to pity, with an unstable mind and weird pain syndromes. I am taking charge of my life. I live according to my principles. I take action and make sacrifices.

You're like the warrior princess of the Tate universe," said Noel. He lowered his voice to sound like a TV announcer: "No matter what they said about her. No matter what people thought! Ruby Oliver was undaunted. She gave parties, she kissed other people's boyfriends, she held hands with strange men. In her magical silver dress, she kicked the asses of one and all who dared to stand in her way…

I decided not to call again. I didn't want to keep saying things that made me feel weak.

Tom Sawyer,

He did not even look back at the castle that had been his home. There, he would never even have a name. Now, he was free to go forth and make a name for himself in the wide, wide world. And maybe, just maybe, he'd come back one day, and burn that fucking palace to the ground.

She refused, over and over, to give any single person her devotion, preferring instead to make a home for herself that she defined on her own terms, and of which she was master.

I don't care what you think, so it's perfectly ok.

You look down on me, but I'm the strong one, I'm the strong one here. Do you see, Immie? Do you see?

This solitude opressed her; she was accustomed to have her thoughts confirmed by others or, at all events, contradicted; it was too dreadful not to know whether she was thinking right or wrong.

Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes.

When we were only acquaintances, you let me be myself, but now you're always protecting me... I won't be protected. I will choose for myself what is ladylike and right. To shield me is an insult. Can't I be trusted to face the truth but I must get it second-hand through you? A woman's place!

I would rather go up to heaven by myself than be pushed by cherubs:

Western societies are, by and large, individualistic societies. The most important entity in an individualistic culture is the individual person.

But, my dear, if you should be caught out in the storm!" "Why, I don't know but I should like it! What harm could it do? I'm not soluble in water - rain won't melt me away! I think upon the whole I rather prefer being caught in the storm," said Cap, perversely.

And no sooner had Cap been commanded, if she valued her safety, not to cross the water or climb the precipice than, as a natural consequence, she began to wonder what was in the valley behind the mountain and what might be in the woods across the river. And she longed, above all things, to explore and find out for herself.

That every Nuer considers himself as good as his neighbor is evident in their every movement. They strut about like lords of the earth, which, indeed, they consider themselves to be. There is no master and no servant in their society, but only equals who regard themselves as Gods noblest creation...even the suspicion of an order riles a man and he either does not carry it out or he carries it out in a casual and dilatory manner that is more insulting than a refusal.

Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her pack. She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere.

It makes a difference, doesn't it, whether we fence ourselves in, or whether we are fenced out by the barriers of others?

I have no profession. It is another example of my decadence. My attitude - quite an indefensible one - is that so long as I am no trouble to any one I have a right to do as I like. I know I ought to be getting money out of people, or devoting myself to things I don't care a straw about, but somehow, I've not been able to begin." "You are quite fortunate, it is quite a wonderful opportunity, the possession of leisure.