Quotes About Autonomy

As if I were any man's idea! As if I exist because a man has an idea of me! As if I will be betrayed by him, lend him my body as an instrument for his idea, to be a mere apparatus of his dead theory. But they are too fussy to be able to act; they are all impotent, they can't take a woman. They come to their own idea every time, and take that. They are like serpents trying to swallow themselves because they are hungry.

Conservatism does not have a party line. It is possible for conservatives to question virtually any position held by other conservatives including, evidently, the notion that they are conservatives at all, without risking excommunication, expulsion, or even a raised eyebrow.

Free will makes us the authors of our own choices, our own sins, our own fates—not other people, not classes or races or genders.

I'll take happiness. My happiness, not society's happiness. I will love a man who pleases me, and please a man who makes me happy—but only as long as he makes me happy, not a moment longer.

I felt free to like all three of these men now, because I'd realized I didn't have to become them.

You can choose how you want to live. You are free to choose the actions, but not the results. You are free to have your kicks, but not to avoid the kickbacks. You are free to make choices, but not to avoid the consequences.

Part of love is letting a person be who they want to be

Freedom is also about what you will allow yourself to do.

Freedom isn't just about voting and marrying and kissing on the street, although all of these things are important. Freedom is also about what you will allow yourself to do.

healthy, adj. There are times when I'm alone that I think, This is it. This is actually the natural state. All I need are my thoughts and my small acts of creation and my ability to go or do whatever I want to go or do. I am myself, and that is the point. Pairing is a social construction. It is by no means necessary for everyone to do it. Maybe I'm better like this. Maybe I could live my life in my own world, and then simply leave it when it's time to go.

It's like you're a character in this book that everyone around you is writing, and suddenly you have to say, 'I'm sorry, but this role isn't right for me'. And you have to start writing your own life and doing your own thing.

Even if neither of us got what we wanted, we found freedom in the third choices.

People are always separable.

autonomy , n . I want my books to have their own shelves, you said, and that's how I knew it would be okay to live together.

I don't like to do what people expect. Why should I live up to their expectations instead of my own?

It's up to you, not fate.

There are times when I'm alone and I think, This is it. This is actually the natural state. All I need are my thoughts and my small acts of creation and my ability to go or do whatever I want to go or do. I am myself, and that is the point. Pairing is a social construction. It is by no means necessary for everyone to do it. Maybe I'm better like this. Maybe I could live my life in my own world, and then simply leave it when it's time to go.

We all think we are actors, given our scripts. But really? You're the playwright. You're the composer.

Maybe I'm better like this. Maybe I could live my life in my own world, and then simply leave it when it's time to go.

You cannot live for anyone else's sake. As much as you may want to, you can't stay alive just because other people want you alive. You cannot stay alive for your parents. You cannot stay alive for your friends. And you have no responsibility to stay alive for them. You have no responsibility to anyone but yourself to live.

You're on your own … until you're not.

Wherever she is, whatever she's doing – it's not about you. It's about her. And you have to let it be about her. Sometimes we don't want to be found right away. If we step away, it's because we need to be found on our own terms.

After all, people are always separable.

I was seventeen, halfway toward eighteen, and I had learned something nobody had ever taught me: Once you get to a certain age, especially if a driver's license is involved, you can go a whole day—a whole week, even—without ever seeing your family. You can maybe say good morning and maybe say good night, but everything in the middle can be left blank.