Quotes about Independence

I'll not do anything, though you should swear your tongue out, except what I please!

I wish I were out of doors! I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free; and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them! Why am I so changed? why does my blood rush into a hell of tumult at a few words? I'm sure I should be myself were I once among the heather on those hills.

It ended. Well, we must be for ourselves in the long run; the mild and generous are only more justly selfish than the domineering - and it ended when circumstances caused each to feel that one's interest was not the chief consideration in the other's thoughts.

She went of her own accord,' answered the master; 'she has a right to go if she please. Trouble me no more about her. Hereafter she is only me sister in name: not because I disown her, but because she has disowned me.

Do not try to seem wise to others. If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes.

Apropos of which, Diogenes says somewhere that one way to guarantee freedom is to be ready to die.

Where are you going to find serenity and independence — in something free, or something enslaved?

When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn't have to look outside themselves for approval.

Free is the person who lives as he wishes - And cannot be coerced, impeded, or compelled, whose impulses cannot be thwarted, who always gets what he desires, and never has to experience what he would rather avoid.

Beware of the man who wants to protect you; he will protect you from everything but himself

Please let us not interfere with the other's work or play, nor let the world see our private joys or disagreements. In this connection I may have to keep some place where I can go to be myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinement of even an attractive cage.

There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb himself.