Quotes About Autonomy

Give a man a fish and he has food for a day; teach him how to fish and you can get rid of him of the entire weekend.

I will never get married to the head of General Motors. I will never be the wife of a superstar. For those women, their lives are somebody else's. I will never be a Mrs. Blabidyblah!

It's bad if we are controlled, but if we're not, it can be even worse.

we can tell our hearts exactly what to believe, but the cheeky little bastards won't listen to anyone but themselves

Traveling with a man is traveling alone.

Well, parental control is somewhat illusory, right?

Define yourself before someone does it for you.

My happiness depends on me.

Nobody can make you happy or unhappy except you.

To be a success, be yourself.

We might like to think of ourselves as autonomous beings who get to decide who we are going to be, but we are likely much more malleable than we think. We are often defined by the structure that keeps us captive. In some ways our desires are so socially constructed that they can't rightfully be called our own.

We're each our own person, we live our own lives, make our own mistakes, learn from them and move forward.

Czechoslovak government and the pro-Nazi leaders of the country's Sudeten German minority, Hitler demanded that the German population be given "self-determination," that is, autonomy within the Czechoslovak republic. The British and French governments feared that these demands, following close on the German annexation of Austria, would be a first step in Hitler's eventual dismembering of Czechoslovakia and its absorption into a greater Reich.

Letting go doesn't mean that you don't care about someone anymore. It's just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.

Children do push away in order to establish themselves as autonomous in this phase. However, typically they do not push far. They still want closeness, lap-sitting, singing games, and stories. They are continuing to learn more about their parents and themselves and are building relationships—not building a wall.

I am not a fucking elf,' she said flatly.

Yes, there had been many times I called my daughters back to zip up their coats. All the same, I knew they would rather be cold and free.

we do not have to conform to the way our life has been written for us, especially by those who are less imaginative than ourselves.

She knew she never wanted children or to serve his breakfast or run his errands or pretend she was not intellectually engaged with the world to make herself more loveable to him.

I wasn't sure my skeletal system had found a way of walking freely in the Societal System

Mitt problem är att jag vill röka cigarren själv och att någon annan ska tända den åt mig. Jag vill blåsa ut röken. Som en vulkan. Som ett monster. Jag vill att det ska ryka om mig. Jag vill inte vara flickan vars jobb det är att jämra sig me gäll röst på begravningar.

If you only behave because an invisible man in the sky is watching, then you don't own your own moral structure. Your moral framework is based outside yourself, separate from your reasoning.

the moment you follow someone else, you cease to be your own leader.

Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone.