I will not be “famous,” “great.” I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one’s self: to let it find...

You’ve remained on the battleground, center stage, experiencing life and, what’s more important, experiencing yourself experiencing it. You haven’t been reduced to a logistical strategy for somebody else’s life-war.

It is easier to live through someone else than to complete yourself. The freedom to lead and plan your own life is frightening if you have never faced it before. It is frightening when a...

Serving as the only audience for a man raised by crowds of admirers exhausted her. […] The buried thought that he might have found comfort elsewhere was almost a comfort to her.

The executive possesses means of distracting Parliament from its proper function; it seduces members by the offer of places and pensions, by retaining them to follow ministers and ministers’ rivals, by persuading them to support...

I’d rather apologize to you for not being who you want me to be than apologize to God for not being who I should be.

Rule your mind or it will rule you.

I love your independence, I love that you don’t swoon, I love that you’ll fight me with your last breath if you think I’m wrong, and if I ever have to catch you, I swear...

By today’s standards King George III was a very mild tyrant indeed. He taxed his American colonists at a rate of only pennies per annum. His actual impact on their personal lives was trivial. He...

I equally dislike the favor of the public with the love of a woman — they are both a cloying treacle to the wings of independence.

Maybe the truly handicapped people are the ones that don’t need God as much.

My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable...

Darlin, you don’t even know how to pleasure yourself.

There was a basic harmony between Antonia and her mistress [Mrs. Harling]. They had strong, independent natures, both of them. They knew what they liked, and were not always trying to imitate other people. They...

She’s right, Kate’s right, I’m right and you’re wrong. If you drive her away from here it will be over my dead— chair, has it never occurred to you at on one occasion you might...

I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.

Now and then women should do for themselves what men have already done—occasionally what men have not done—thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action.

We want autonomy for ourselves and safety for those we love. That remains the main problem and paradox for the frail. Many of the things that we want for those we care about are things...

There’s a lot of things wrong with this country, but one of the few things still right with it is that a man can steer clear of the organized bullshit if he really wants to....

…freedom is of more account than the height of a roof beam. I ought to know; mine cost me eighteen years’ slavery. The man who lives on his own land is an independent man. He...

We don’t want to have a child that has many illnesses, and that will pass away after a few months. A child must have a good environment, and parents that will take care of it....

What! Would I be turned back from doing a thing that I had determined to do, and that I knew to be right, by the airs and interference of such a person, or any person...

So many people are so terrified to be alone that they settle for a loveless relationship or stay trapped in a miserable one for months and even years on end. But as it turns out,...

She tried to act as though it were nothing to go to the library alone. But her happiness betrayed her. Her smile could not be restrained, and it spread from her tightly pressed mouth, to...

I am an explorer,’ she whispered, ‘setting courageously off into the wild unknown.’ It was not a daydream she’d ever had before, but she felt the familiar comfort of her imagination wrapping around her. She...

any smart human being should use every resource in order to achieve his independence.

She might be without country, without nation, but inside her there was still a being that could exist and be free, that could simply say I am without adding a this, or a that, without...

I shall not change my course because those who assume to be better than I desire it.

Let me tell you something, honey. Fifty percent of life is others trying to push their own agenda on you—their belief system, their views, their convictions. The other fifty percent is you deciding whether or...

You won’t be benefited unless & until you give a chance.

I do as I please, Monsieur Beauchamp, and believe me, what I do is always well done.

We can only save ourselves through elevating our individual consciousness, by realizing there is already completeness within, and exercising as much considerate independence, respect and fairness as is possible.

(Response to King Erik XIV of Sweden’s proposal of marriage:)”[W]hile we perceive … the zeal and love of your mind towards us is not diminished, yet in part we are grieved that we cannot gratify...

…it is not enough to be freeof the whips, principalities and powers

Groups are only smart when there is a balance between the information that everyone in the group shares and the information that each of the members of the group holds privately. It’s the combination of...

[Leslie Bennett] You have a teenager who desperately wants to separate…If you don’t have a career, these New Domesticity types are likely to find themselves standing in the kitchen with all these domestic skills and...

It is likely to make us think we are not caged. We cannot feel the bars unless we push against them.

You know what I know, Mally. Now you must decide what to believe.

This means that if 54.5 percent of voters in Montenegro want independence, then we remain in union with Serbia and a minority wins over the majority. This does not seem fair to me, but we...

For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.

Being human makes us one. Being uniquely ourselves makes us individual.” – Nancy S. Mure, Author of Unidentical Twins

I admire independence. The world would be a stronger place if we were all capable of handling life on our own. But being capable of it doesn’t mean being unable to share and depend on...

When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.

The greatest gift a parent can leave a child is that parent’s own independence.

We’re better together than we are apart. The American Dream has us looking out for ourselves even at the expense of our neighbors. That shit ain’t true, man.

You may be operating from the belief that you must do everything yourself because no one will ever be there for you. Or you may think that if you never speak up you’ll avoid being...

there’s nothing todiscussthere’s nothing torememberthere’s nothing toforgetit’s sadand it’s notsadseems themost sensiblethinga person can doissitwith drink inhandas the wallswavetheir goodbyesmilesone comes throughit allwith a certain amount ofefficiency andbraverythenleavessome acceptthe possibility ofGodto help themgetthroughotherstake itstaight onand...

Because two people in love don’t make a hive mind. Neither should they want to be a hive mind, to think the same, to know the same. It’s about being separate and still loving each...

A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away.

no girl can permanently bolster up a lame-duck visitor, because these day it’s every girl for herself.