Quotes About Autonomy

The policy of the American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.

Was the government to prescribe us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. - Thomas Jefferson

Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance.

He was simply not a "hero", which is to say, he did not let his relationship with the man be determined by the woman.

Todavía doy importancia a mi libertad, o al menos a ese resto de libertad y dignidad humana que aún conservamos.

How do you expect to arrive at the end of your journey if you take the road to another man's city?(100)

When men are merely submerged in a mass of impersonal human beings pushed around by automatic forces, they lose their true humanity, their integrity, their ability to love, their capacity for self-determination

Coercion from outside, strong temperamental inclinations and passions within ourselves, do nothing to effect the essence of our freedom. They simply define its action by imposing certain limits on it.

And everything seemed to conspire to encourage me to cut myself off from everybody else and go my own way.

My own mind is my own church.

Once the technical means of control have reached a certain size, a certain degree of being connected one to another, the chances for freedom are over for good. The word has ceased to have meaning.

A fool can put on his coat better than a wise man can put it on for him.

The difference is that one system involves each individual making choices for himself or herself, while the other system involves a small number of people making choices for millions of others.

As an adult, you have enough knowledge and life experience to take good care of yourself, and you don't need to blindly follow childhood rules any longer in order to keep yourself safe.

Remember that you can't fix other people's problems. Nothing you do will remove the misery they feel, if they don't want to let go of it. Being a scapegoat or whipping post for someone else's anger, frustration, grief, or misery is really only enabling them to stay in the same old patterns. There's absolutely nothing wrong with removing yourself from a difficult situation and getting on with your life. I wish you peace and healing.

Once you start living according to other people's rules, going along with what other people think, your soul shrivels and dies.

I'd rather be alone with the bills, she thought as she pushed the elevator button. At least you know where you stand.

voluntary slavery

Soul selects her own Society

Once she saw herself as the source of her disappointing love story, Dianna discovered there was no shortage of evidence that she was the author of her own deep aloneness in life.

When you get old, everyone wants to protect you," Rosie says to me. "They don't remember that if you managed to et this old, you've probably figured out how to protect yourself.

Our idol of the autonomous individual is a sham; the truth is we expect everyone to be the same, and dismiss as elitist those who are working through a call to any genuine vocation. It may be that our culture so fears the necessary other that it has grown unable to identify and name real differences without becoming defensive about them.

I'd like to live in great comfort. And peace.' And then she added, quite to her surprise, 'With no one to tell me what to do or how to do it.

What would you like to do with it?' he pressed. Grace thought a moment. 'Live, Monsieur Tissot. I'd like to live in great comfort. And peace.' And then she added, quite to her surprise, 'With no one to tell me what to do or how to do it.' He