#Autonomy Quotes

“I am not bound to please thee with my answer.”

“This liberty is all that I request.”

“Leave us to our free election.”

“Do not shut up the young people against their will in a pew, and force the children to ask them questions for an hour against their will.”

“Who is he that shall control me? Why may not I act and speak and write and think with entire freedom? What am I to the universe, or, the unvierse, what is it to me? Who hath forged the chains of wrong and right, of Opinion and Custom? And must I wear them?”

“Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”

“A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man's crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.”

“Direct not him whose way himself will choose;'Tis breath not lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose.”

“I am not willing to be drawn further into the toils. I cannot accede to the acceptance of gifts upon terms which take the educational policy of the university out of the hands of the Trustees and Faculty and permit it to be determined by those who give money.”

“Respect the child. Wait and see the new product of Nature. Nature loves analogies, but not repetitions. Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.”

“When I go into the garden with a spade and dig a bed I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.”

“I'm the luckiest guy in the world in terms of what I do for a living. No one can tell me to do things I don't believe in or things I think are stupid.”

“I don't care how little your country is, you got a right to run it like you want to. When the big nations quit meddling then the world will have peace.”

“I really like my life. I've arranged my life so that I can do what I want.”

“All I have to do is think and not be influenced by others.”

“I have this complicated procedure I go through every morning, which is to look in the mirror and decide what I'm going to do. And I feel at that point, everybody's had their say.”

“I wanted to retain my individuality. I was afraid of being hampered by studio policies. I knew if someone else got control, I would be restrained.”

“All artists need a room of their own”

“Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.”

“You shape your perceptions, or someone shapes them for you. You do what you want to do, or you respond to someone else's plan for you.”

“Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself.”

“Everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason.”

“Every man is an infinitely repelling orb, and holds his individual being on that condition.”

“No one has a right to obstruct another exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature.”

“Why should the way I feel depend on the thoughts in someone else's head?”

“The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.”

“If I had a humble spirit in my service who, when I asked for a glass of water, brought me the world's costliest wines blended in a chalice, I should dismiss him, in order to teach him that my pleasure consists, not in what I enjoy, but in having my own way.”

“People learn more on their own rather than being force fed.”

“No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.”

“Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.”

“You may raise enough money to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot raise money enough to hire a man who is minding his own business.”

“Do what you want to do, when you want to do it ... and not a moment sooner.”

“A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.”

“We must learn to be self-reliant and independent of schools, courts, protection and patronage of a Government we seek to end, if it will not mend.”

“If you do a job another's way, he or she must take the responsibility. If you do it your way, you must take the responsibility.”

“If an American is concerned only about his nation, he will not be concerned about the peoples of Asia, Africa, or South America. Is this not why nations engage in the madness of war without the slightest sense of penitence? Is this not why the murder of a citizen of your own nation is a crime, but the murder of citizens of another nation in war is an act of heroic virtue?”

“I sought the advice and cooperation from all those around me- but not permission.”

“A wise man does nothing by constraint.”

“A person who is wise does nothing against their will, nothing with sighing or under coercion.”

“Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion.”

“Everybody is always tugging at you. They'd all like a sort of chunk out of you. I don' think they realize it, but it's like 'grrr do this, grr do that' But you do want to stay intact-intact and on two feet.”

“Instead of taking the reader by the hand and running him down the hill, I want to lead him into a house of many rooms, and leave him alone in each of them.”

“No one can tell me what is a good cigar - for me. I am the only judge. People who claim to know say that I smoke the worst cigars in the world. They bring their own cigars when they come to my house.”

“I had to use my wits or else I'd have been sunk - and nothings going to sink me. Everyone was always pulling at me, tugging at me, as if they wanted a piece of me. It was always, 'do this, do that,' and not just on the job but off, too. God, I've tried to stay intact, whole.”

“The Chinese in this country aren't asking for integration.”

“Do people conform to the instructions of us old ones? Each thinks he must know best about himself, and thus many are lost entirely.”

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

“The lover must often say, "I love because I must, because I will it. I love for myself, not for others. I love for the joy it gives me - and incedentally, only - for that joy it gives to others. If they reinforce me it will be good. If they do not, it also will be good, for I will to love."”

“Like, this is my baby. This isn't America's baby.”

“Nobody can tell me where I can and can't go.”