Quotes About Autonomy

I believe in small government and people taking care of themselves.

Being from a small town, no one else was going to breathe life into my ideas other than me, so I had to go out there and do it.

Authority is something from which we are constantly subtracting, of which there remains always a residue, and which we attempt to make smaller and smaller.

I want almost no laws, I want the smallest government possible. I don't want anyone telling anyone what to do.

A smart girl leaves before she is left.

I just know that it's smart for my career to carve my own path and do my own thing.

If you can't hire someone smarter than you, do it yourself.

Even the kids who seem to have a lot of freedom, their lives are pretty controlled. So what I try to do on my shows is to have kids come out on top. They're the smartest ones in the room. They're the ones in charge.

People think that when they come up to me, screaming things into my ear, that I will respond according to what they want. I'll turn around and smile and take the photo. But I'm not somebody's marionette.

Without appearing smug in any way, I would say I did not have a role model. I wish I had but I did not.

I don't do anything I don't want to do. There are so many opportunities that come my way, but if there's something out there that I don't want to do, I truly don't do it, because I have to maximize my time. If there's truly an opportunity to be quiet and be by myself, I do it.

So many opportunities are born from not asking permission.

So many people always try to help me carry my luggage and help me do things I can do myself. If I can do it myself, I'm going to do it myself. I'm not going to let other people do it for me, and I think that's a big part of where I came from. I'm not a real prissy girl.

It's nice being able to speak for myself. Every interview I did for so many years and every time I was in front of the camera, pre-Twitter, there was no way for me to speak for myself. Every interview started with, 'What was it like to work for this man?'

I don't really like to work with a large team and assistants, because then I lose so much time explaining things, which I don't like.

I've never been told to do anything. I've never been hurried along by anybody - the kind of so-called 'pressure' of record labels doesn't really exist in my case.

It seems as though we can no longer imagine anyone but a professional or an institution or a product supplying our daily needs or solving our problems. This learned helplessness is, of course, much to the advantage of the corporations eager to step forward and do all this work for us.

That sounds so weird: kill yourself. It makes it sound like you tried to murder someone, only that someone is you. But killing someone is wrong, and I don't think suicide is. It's my life, right? I should be able to end it if I want to. I don't think it's a sin.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself

I listen with attention to the judgment of all men; but so far as I can remember, I have followed none but my own.

We should tend our freedom wisely.

No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

La plus grande chose du monde, c'est de savoir être à soi.

I have a mind that belongs wholly to itself, and is accustomed to go its own way. Having never until this hour had a master or governor imposed on me, I have advanced as far as I pleased, and at my own pace. This has made me slack and unfit for the service of others; it has made me useless to any but myself.