Quotes About Autonomy

We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them.

The right to express our thoughts, however, means something only if we are able to have thoughts of our own; freedom from external authority is a lasting gain only if the inner psychological conditions are such that we are able to establish our own individuality.

For centuries kings, priests, feudal lords, industrial bosses and parents have insisted that obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice.

They were more free, but they were more alone.

Freedom is not something we have, there is no such thing as freedom. Freedom is a quality of our personality: we are more or less free to resist pressure, more or less free to do what we want and to be ourselves. Freedom is always a question of increasing freedom one has, or decreasing it.

modern man still is anxious and tempted to surrender his freedom to dictators of all kinds, or to lose it by transforming himself into a small cog in the machine, well fed, and well clothed, yet not a free man but an automaton.

A free person owes an explanation only to himself, to his reason and his conscious, and to the few who may have a justified claim for explanation.

no man must be the means for the ends of another man.

Die Liebe ist das Kind der Freiheit, niemals der Beherrschung

l'amour est l'enfant de la liberté" as an old French song says; love is the child of freedom

Respect, thus, implies the absence of exploitation. I want the loved person to grow and unfold for his own sake, and in his own ways, and not for the purpose of serving me. If I love the other person, I feel one with him or her, but with him as he is, not as I need him to be as an object for my use. It is clear that respect is possible only if I have achieved independence; if I can stand and walk without needing crutches, without

I have no particular desire for a man's guidance. And if you think it will be your duty to guide me after we are wed, then you had better reconsider your role as a husband.

am in a body. It is not the one I came here with, but it is the one I'll leave here in. I will take care of it. It belongs to me now. My pain, I will take care of it. It belongs to me now. My heart, I will take care of it. It belongs to me now. My story, I will take care of it. It belongs to me now.

Liberty: One of Imagination's most precious possessions.

Mad, adj.: Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence.

Never do things others can do and will do, if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

Please let us not interfere with the other's work or play, nor let the world see our private joys or disagreements. In this connection I may have to keep some place where I can go to be myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to ensure at all times the confinement of even an attractive cage.

Please let us not interfere with the other's work or play, nor let the world see our private joys or disagreements. In this connection I may have to keep some place where I can go to be myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinement of even an attractive cage.

Man muss sich im Leben auch mal selbst ans Steuer wagen, statt immer nur Passagier zu bleiben

Doctrines are meant to serve man, not the other way around.

L'homme n'appartient ni à sa langue ni à sa race : il n'appartient qu'à lui-même, car c'est un être libre, c'est un être moral. »

Bir kad?na ya da bir erkeÄŸe sayg? duymak demek, onunla her hakka sahip bir insan gibi, özgür ve yetiÅŸkin bir insan gibi konuÅŸmak demektir, yoksa onu, topraÄŸa ait bir serf gibi, içinde yaÅŸad??? topluluÄŸa ait olan, ba??ml? bir varl?k olarak görmek deÄŸil.

Do not acept whatever comes. Do not accept whatever goes. You have infinite power. Exercise your choice.

You are your master. Only you have the master keys to open the inner locks.