Quotes About Autonomy

But the most important thing these rejections gave me was a sense that NEVER AGAIN should I rely on the whims of one person to choose my success or failure in any endeavor.

Defining freedom in different ways (reducing expectations, increasing sources of income so no one source controls you).

That's when it clicked. When everything changed. When I realized that nobody else was going to do it for me. If I was going to thrive, to survive, I had to choose myself. In every way. The stakes have risen too high not to.

The day and age of the massive corporations that take care of us from beginning to end are over. But that is exciting news. It means we can choose the life we want for ourselves.

Nothing ever works out when you are at the whims of others. It doesn't matter if you are an entrepreneur or an employee. Once someone is bribing you to do something (a salary is a form of bribery if you are only doing the work for the money and not for the meaning) then you become a prisoner.

Always take the job, pursue the life, and have the friends that allow you to have as much freedom as possible.

Often people want answers right now! When they tell you to jump, they want you to ask, "How high?" But you have the right to think things over. The right to delay. The right to say, "Okay, give me some time to see how I feel about it." The right to get to know the people who enter your life in either business or relationships and see if they are the right fit.

It's not our parents' fault. Or our schools'. Or the government's. Or our friends'. They all have their own issues—no need to blame them. But there's no need to say yes to their stories either. Now is the time for us to build our own stories.

If I had a to-do list I might get even more stressed not getting to it. The to-do list becomes my master and I become the slave. One of my themes is "less slavery in my life.

True wealth occurs when you don't have to bow down to any gatekeepers—regardless of the money involved. Money is just a by-product. You are out of prison. You are free.

Take control of whom you report to, what you do, and what you create. Don't just do what's listed in your job description.

I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?

Nothing is more unbearable, once has it, than freedom.

You've got to tell the world how to treat you. If the world tells you how you are going to be treated, you are in trouble.

And here I was, left with only myself to deal with. It was entirely up to me.

Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right to assume otherwise.

A mob is not autonomous: it executes the real will of the people who rule the State.

A mob is not autonomous: it executes the real will of the people who rule the State. The slaughter in Birmingham, Alabama, for example, was not merely the action of a mob.

Men are men, and sometimes they must be left alone.

Nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom.

I would not allow myself to be defined by other people, white or black." —James Baldwin

I think the country has to find out what it means by freedom. Freedom is a very dangerous thing. Anything else is disastrous. But freedom is dangerous. You've got to make choices. You've got to make very dangerous choices. You've got to be taught that your life is in your hands.

The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake. The best people don't need to be managed. Guided, taught, led—yes. But not tightly managed.

The best people don't need to be managed. Guided, taught, led—yes. But not tightly managed.