Quotes About Independence

From the time he was young, he dressed the way you told him to dress; he acted the way you told him to act; he said the things you told him to say. He's been listening to somebody else tell him what to do... He hasn't changed. He is still listening to somebody else tell him what to do. The problem is, it isn't you any,ore; it's his peers.

I was well motivated. What I wanted to do was work for myself. I had twenty two jobs before I started my business at the age of twenty three and I didn't want one more boss telling me what to do. So I was motivated simply because I didn't want a boss.

My husband had a very strong identity and was successful in his life. Thank God for that. There's no way I can control him. I wouldn't stay married to him if I felt I could. I can readily take my business personality into the home. But he forces me to be a partner rather than the boss.

A good roommate may be the single most important thing to have when one is away at school.

learned to keep my distance at an early age. A survival mechanism, you might say. I'm working on it, though. Another thirty years and I should about have it mastered.

Vulnerable. It wasn't a word she liked the sound of. It was a weak word. A needy word. And she didn't want to need anyone.

First rule of self-defense is: Don't ask your attacker for validation.

First rule of self-defense is: Don't ask your attacker for validation. Never apologize for sticking up for yourself.

Her ticket to freedom lay in her lap. Ever an avid reader, Annie had escaped into books in recent months, when all else failed to calm her. As a friend, a book had advantages over the human variety. It was there whenever she needed it, it vanished as easily, and it never asked questions, expected witty replies, made awkward suggestions, or otherwise overcompensated for its own inability to right the wrongs of the world.

That's the dilemma with family. When it comes to our parents, we're always children. At what point do we grow up? They raise us to function as individuals, but when do they allow us to act independently?

The only thing I want is to be loved as a grown person with the right to her own dreams.

He shook his head. "For me." Leaving the bed, he went to the door, picked up the large picnic basket that the girls were holding, then closed the door, leaving them outside. Much as he had needed their help earlier, he didn't want an audience now.

turned off the BlackBerry before James could text back. I might hate electronic wizardry, but it was my ally now. I could use it or not, could respond to James or not, and with my calls simply showing "New York" on his caller ID, he had no idea where I was.

Men weren't always a solution. There were times when they made things worse.

You kids were all in college, and I suddenly saw that I was stuck alone with a man who, all those years later, was still wanting me to be someone I wasn't.

Upscale young men seem to go for the kind of woman who plays with a full deck of credit cards, who won't cry when she's knocked to the ground while trying to board the six o clock Eastern shuttle, and whose schedule doesn't allow for a sexual encounter lasting more than twelve minutes.

We can hardly pride ourselves on being the world's preeminent democracy, after all, if the large numbers of citizens spend half their waking hours in what amounts, in plain terms, to a dictatorship.

I've always supported myself. I like the sense of knowing exactly where I stand financially, but there is a side of me that longs for a knight in shining armor.

I'm not saying that there's anything better than mated bliss at its best, but I'm saying that living alone is as good in its own way. But we haven't quite given ourselves permission to recognize that.

This is your space to do with as you please, a playground where you can create the game with all its rules without compromise—one of the perks of living alone.

Let go of the idea that someone else can make your life wonderful. Your happiness is in your own hands; that's the safest place for it.

Don't depend on a partner for your self-esteem. Never give away your value to someone else.

Living on one's own is not always ideal - but then, neither is marriage. The mated format is charted territory. Those venturing into singlehood are the Lewis and Clarks of a pioneering lifestyle with few maps, unexpected ambushes, and an infinity of adventures. Therein lies its glory!

Living alone provides the guardrails of friends and inner autonomy as insurance against losing oneself in that first delirium of infatuation and prematurely surrendering to a relationship you might later regret.