Quotes About Autonomy

I always wanted to watch with my own eyes without having my judgement swayed by the filters of others.

But sometimes it is just impossible to obey blindly. Sometimes a child must strike out on her own. A child cannot be a child forever

Still, as I watch the sun journey higher up on the horizon, I appreciate that, for only the second time in my entire life, I am alone, blessedly alone, with no one to tell me what to do or what to wear, no one to have to be polite to. Nothing. But I do not wish to be alone, not entirely. Now that I am finally alone, it feels...lonely.

I do all this alone, everything I achieve, I achieve alone, because it's my head I'm locked into, and I share this space with nobody but myself.

Being a loner and being a loner were two separate things- Fireproof

You should never deny who you are to please someone else. If that's the choice, then it's not meant to be.

Man is not free from conditions. But he is free to take a stand in regard to them. The conditions do not completely condition him.

She saw. But she went her own way just the same.

When a machine begins to run without human aid, it is time to scrap it - whether it be a factory or a government.

Power over a man's subsistence is power over his will.

In the main it will be found that a power over a man's support (salary) is a power over his will.

Power over a man's subsistence amounts to power over his will.

Independent Journal

The liberty of the individual is the greatest thing of all, it is on this and this alone that the true will of the people can develop.

That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle.

And mistress of herself, though china fall.

Oh let me live my own! and die so too! ("To live and die is all I have to do:") Maintain a poet's dignity and ease, And see what friends, and read what books I please.

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.

Are we encouraging him to make his own judgments about what constitutes a good performance (or a desirable action) ? Are we contributing to, or at least preserving, his ability to choose what kind of person to be? Or are we attempting to manipulate his behavior by getting him to think about whether he has met our criteria? The

The exceptional teachers not only tended to give less homework but also were likely to give students more choices about their assignments.

When we repeatedly promise rewards to children for acting responsibly, or to students for making an effort to learn something new, or to employees for doing quality work, we are assuming that they could not or would not choose to act this way on their own.

Some who support more coercive strategies assume that children will run wild if they are not controlled. However, the children for whom this is true typically turn out to be those accustomed to being controlled—those who are not trusted, given explanations, encouraged to think for themselves, helped to develop and internalize good values, and so on. Control breeds the need for more control, which then is used to justify the use of control.

Empowered kids are in the best position to deal constructively with disempowering circumstances. And we, as parents, are in the best position to empower them - as long as we're willing to limit our use of power over them.