Quotes About Autonomy

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

Nearly everybody yields up his conscience, his practical judgment, into the keeping of others.

Do not turn yourself from an end into a means -- one does not justify the other.

Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.

This man is freed from servile bands, Of hope to rise, or fear to fall Lord of himself, though not of lands, And leaving nothing, yet hath all.

I may stand alone, But would not change my free thoughts for a throne.

Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you.

No one has a right to tell you what you want, what you need, or what you must have. So why let them?

Well, yeah, you do have to do some things alone. You come into this life alone, and you go out alone. At the end of the day, it's just you.

Not goddamn dead yet. Like I told you, the day I need someone to brush my teeth, wipe my ass, put me to bed in diapers, is the day I stop living.

Why must women stay quietly? Why must we be little moons, each of us stuck in our little orbit, revolving around a planet that is some man? Why can't we be other planets? Why must we be moons?

An adult should not be forced into marriage as a child is forced to eat his peas. Peas are only part of a meal. Marriage is a life's work.

I don't need to be coddled and sheltered. I don't need all my battles fought for me. I do need to be believed in.

One of the most important steps in therapy is helping people take responsibility for their current predicaments, because once they realize that they can (and must) construct their own lives, they're free to generate change.

Insight allows you to ask yourself, Is this something that's being done to me or am I doing it to myself? The answer gives you choices, but it's up to you to make them.

Kids and freedom are mutually exclusive.

I had wanted to get married, but I realized now that I never wanted to be a 'wife.

The only place I see you headed, Grady, is where you want to go. Wherever that might be. You're in control of your life. You have it in you to achieve whatever you set your mind to. And don't let Drew or anybody else tell you different.

The "basis of Feminism," Sanger said, had to be a woman's control over her own body, "the right to be a mother regardless of church or state."15

This was the next phase of her life and from now on, she wasn't going to take any rubbish from anyone. From now on she was going to decide what she wanted and go for it.

finally she feels free - not perfect, not problem free, just free

I don't get attached… There's no place for it in my world.

Fine. It's your life, but—" "But you're still going to tell me what to do?" he asked, a small smile on his lips. She went into defense mode at his amused tone. "Well, I'm sure as hell not going to be quiet about it." "Duly noted," he said dryly. "And for the record? I never want you to be quiet, Elle.

That was one of the things she loved about him. He assumed she could walk and chew gum at the same time. He never second-guessed her, and he didn't try to change her. He accepted.