Quotes About Autonomy

The only person you can be sure to control, always, is yourself.

This isn't about him. It's about you. You shouldn't do anything you're not ready for.

If you take nothing else from what I've been through, at least remember this: make your choices well. Because you'll always be accountable for them. That's what being an adult is all about.

accepting help doesn't have to mean giving up control

That was the thing about being alone, in theory or in principle. Whatever happened—good, bad, or anywhere in between—it was always, if nothing else, all your own.

Some men would want to hold you like the answer. You are not the answer.

I like to be in charge of my destiny.

People don't become what they were brought up to be, people become themselves. (p.146)

I did not hesitate to be disagreeable to preserve my independence.

did not hesitate to be disagreeable to preserve my independence"—applied

La Solitude est un condition necessaire de la liberte.

we are abandoned in the world ... in the sense that we find ourselves suddenly alone and without help. Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

If people don't think they have the power to solve their problems, they won't even think about how to solve them.

The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.

The challenge of modern freedom, or the combination of isolation and freedom which confronts you, is to make yourself up. The danger is that you may emerge from the process as a not-entirely-human creature. (Referenced in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young)

I have begun in old age to understand just how oddly we all are put together. We are so proud of our autonomy that we seldom if ever realize how generous we are to ourselves, and just how stingy with others. One of the booby traps of freedom--which is bordered on all sides by isolation--is that we think so well of ourselves. I now see that I have helped myself to the best cuts at life's banquet.

But it's a tiresome preoccupation, self-esteem. Something has to be done to limit the number of people whose opinions can affect us.

antinomian.

The challenge of modern freedom, or the combination of isolation and freedom which confronts you, is to make yourself up. The danger is that you may emerge from the process as a not-entirely-human creature.

Sometimes you have to trust grownups, perhaps more so when they are not there to actually supervise you.

Arab independence was only guaranteed in those lands that the Arabs freed themselves.

Whenever we think of ourselves doing something for someone else, we are in some way denying our own responsibility. Whatever we do is done because we choose to do it, and we make that choice because it is the one that satisfies us the most. Whatever we do for someone else we do because it fulfills a need we have.

c'était moi qui souffrais de troubles du caractère, pas lui. J'étais responsable de mon temps. C'était à moi seul de décider comment je voulais l'utiliser et l'organiser.

That was the whole point of being special: You existed to make sure everyone else behaved, but that didn't mean YOU had to.