Quotes About Autonomy

Coercing a woman out of a burka is as bad as coercing her into one. It's not about the burka. It's about the coercion.

It had to do with the way she lived, in the country of her own skin. A country that issued no visas and seemed to have no consulates.

I decided to brazen it out and ask about Musa, where he was, whether they were still together, whether they planned to get married. She said, "I'm not marrying anybody." When I asked her why she felt that way, she said she wanted to be free to die irresponsibly, without notice and for no reason.

India was a Free Country. You could make salt. Row jam, if you wanted to.

Io non sposerò nessuno mi rispose. Quando le chiesi perché, mi spiegò che voleva essere libera di morire in modo irresponsabile, senza preavviso e senza motivo.

He was grateful to her for not wanting to look after him. For not offering to tidy his room. For not being his cloying mother. He grew to depend on Margaret Kochamma for not depending on him. He adored her for not adoring him. Of

choosing between her husband's name and her father's name didn't give a woman much of a choice.

You do not rush to obey those who seek to command you. Your independence makes people puzzle over you.

He moved his line in the sand. This is what it means to have autonomy -- you may not control life's circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.

All we ask is to be allowed to remain the writers of our own story. That story is ever changing. Over the course of our lives, we may encounter unimaginable difficulties. Our concerns and desires may shift. But whatever happens, we want to retain the freedom to shape our lives in ways consistent with our character and loyalties.

Our lives are inherently dependent on others and subject to forces and circumstances well beyond our control. Having more freedom seems better than having less. But to what end? The amount of freedom you have in your life is not the measure of the worth of your life. Just as safety is an empty and even self-defeating goal to live for, so ultimately is autonomy.

You know, there's this phase of people's lives in which they can't really cope on their own, and we ought to find a way to make it manageable.

As people become aware of the finitude of their life, they do not ask for much. They do not seek more riches. They do not seek more power. They ask only to be permitted, insofar as possible, to keep shaping the story of their life in this world-- to make choices and sustain connections to others according to their own priorities. In modern society, we have come to assume that debility and dependence rule out such autonomy.

amount of freedom you have in your life is not the measure of the worth of your life. Just as safety is an empty and even self-defeating goal to live for, so ultimately is autonomy.

We want autonomy for ourselves and safety for those we love.

And then a new question arises: If independence is what we live for, what do we do when it can no longer be sustained?

This is what it means to have autonomy - you may not control life's circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.

The value of autonomy Ã¢â'¬Â¦ lies in the scheme of responsibility it creates: autonomy makes each of us responsible for shaping his own life according to some coherent and distinctive sense of character, conviction, and interest. It allows us to lead our own lives rather than be led along them, so that each of us can be, to the extent such a scheme of rights can make this possible, what he has made himself.

The philosophy is that you push the power of decision making out to the periphery and away from the center. You give people the room to adapt, based on their experience and expertise. All you ask is that they talk to one another and take responsibility. That is what works. The

Somehow, instead of holding on to the lifelong identity that was slipping away from him, he managed to redefine it. He moved his line in the sand. This is what it means to have autonomy—you may not control life's circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.

Whatever the limits and travails we face, we want to retain the autonomy—the freedom—to be the authors of our lives.

But we have at last entered an era in which an increasing number of them believe their job is not to confine people's choices, in the name of safety, but to expand them, in the name of living a worthwhile life.

This is what it means to have autonomy—you may not control life's circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.

HOW DID WE wind up in a world where the only choices for the very old seem to be either going down with the volcano or yielding all control over our lives?