Quotes About Autonomy

A person who decrees "That's not funny" isn't in a position to define that for anyone, let alone everyone.

The pursuit of perfection is far too important to be handed over to the control and direction of a set of people who by blood, force or election have acquired the right to call themselves 'governors'.

to think nothing about the opinion of his society (if he be in any sense a member) is to be unconsciously influenced by it.

People who think they're free in this world just haven't come to the end of their leash yet.

No one in my family questions my desire, however inchoate or ineffable, because it's partly their desire too: this need to be self-sufficient and free at all costs.

That's the mark of a good office. The people who do the work get on with it without bothering to tell the boss.

THE MORE SHE FOUND HERSELF, THE LESS SHE FELT THE NEED TO FIND A MAN THAT MADE HER FEEL LIKE SHE WAS WORTHY. A MAN'S JOB IS NOT TO GIVE A WOMAN HER CROWN. IT IS ONLY THEIR JOB TO RESPECT IT.

I feel sorry for hookers these days—how do they stand out anymore?

Do you know the greatest gift a parent can give to a child?" she asked, looking around the room. No one answered. "Independence. To allow them go out into the world and make their own decisions, travel their own paths.

There have always been people like you, Nicholas Flamel. People who think they know what's best, who decide what people should see and read and listen to, who ultimately try to shape how the rest of the world thinks and acts.

Yet basically, libertarians are for freedom and liberty for individuals, while recognizing that in order to be free we must also be protected. Your freedom to swing your arms ends at my nose.

my hope is that whatever it is you decide to believe about whatever subject, you have thought through carefully each of those beliefs and at least tried to make sure that they are your beliefs and not those of your parents. It matters less to me what your specific beliefs are than that you have carefully arrived at your beliefs through reason and evidence and thoughtful reflection.

The fundamental concept here is that if antibiotics are a societal trust—if my use affects your ability to use them, and then your use affects my grandkids' ability to use them—why are we allowing people to choose? We recognize in society that individual autonomy extends only up to the point that you begin to affect others.

We recognize in society that individual autonomy extends only up to the point that you begin to affect others.

I didn't ask to be saved

They don't like it when you end things the way you want to and don't wait for the way it's "supposed" to happen. What if suicide is the way it's supposed to happen? Do they ever think of that?

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.

That's what America's all about, man, if it's about anything. You can choose your own name.

Bannon, Kushner, Conway, and the president's daughter actually had no specific responsibilities—they could make it up as they went along. They did what they wanted.

Trump usually avoided: he had no interest in personnel problems, since they put the emphasis on other people.

For anything that smacked of a classroom or of being lectured to—"professor" was one of his bad words, and he was proud of never going to class, never buying a textbook, never taking a note—he got up and left the room.

Now I want you to consider: any legal adult here can do anything he wishes with the only restriction being that no one else gets hurt.

Everyone wants "freedom," she decided, but the more free one was, the more responsibility one had.

Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death.