Quotes About Autonomy

Surprising condition, this, of our existence! To live is to feel ourselves fatally obliged to exercise our liberty, to decide what we are going to be in this world. Not for a single moment is our activity of decision allowed to rest. Even when in desperation we abandon ourselves to whatever may happen, we have decided not to decide.

In 1916, President Wilson drafted the speech in which he declared, "It shall not lie with the American people to dictate to another what their government shall be." His Secretary of State Robert Lansing wrote in the margin: "Haiti, S Domingo, Nicaragua, Panama."6 That

For while we may debate our freedom to choose, there is no doubt that we are not free not to choose.

they have become notable features of the heart of modern darkness: no givens, no rules and no limits.

For at the heart of freedom lies a grand paradox: the greatest enemy of freedom is freedom.

Your security does not lie in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands.

Human beings never submit to human beings

If you don't give a damn what the rest of the world is up to, you can be alone for a hundred years—a thousand years—with no difficulty whatsoever.

Just as a man has the right to live, he ought also to have the right to die.

A partir de entonces entendí de que la llamada sociedad era el individuo. Y con esta idea, fui capaz de comportarme más de acuerdo con mi propia voluntad.

Even if you die, don't become his plaything!

Mientras que las personas tienen el derecho de vivir con libertad, tienen también el derecho de morir en el momento que lo deseen; pero, cuando la madre está viva, hay que renunciar a este derecho porque, al ejercerlo, al mismo tiempo que quitarse la propia vida se llevarían la de la madre.

Greater freedom frequently comes with greater responsibility.

Authority is quite degrading

Once upon a time, Freedom and Necessity were identical; but now what is understood by freedom is in fact indiscipline.

degree of maturity in the level of personal identification with social, political, or religious ideologies; second, an ability to resist regression when subject to group processes; and third, an ability to adhere to a value system of one's own choosing as opposed to submitting to conventionality.

Every child has to raise itself.

You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they're going.

You know how it is with cats: They don't really have owners, they have staff.

Not yet. I don't know what I'm so happy about. But it doesn't matter whether Ma agrees or not. I can make my own decisions. I'm a person, the same as the rest of you.

You can only trust yourself... and barely that.

No one bestowed courage or freedom or self-determination - one simply decided to take it.

And I'll do what I damned well please.

Eventually you just have to realize that you're living for an audience of one. I'm not here for anyone else's approval.