#Self Determination Quotes

“Tis in ourselves that we are thus, or thus.”

“I do not wish to remove from my present prison to a prison a little larger. I wish to break all prisons.”

“Quietly affirm that you will define your own reality from now on and that your definition will be based on your inner wisdom”

“I'm happier. I guess I made up my mind to be that way.”

“Our future is in our hands. Our lives are what we choose to make them.”

“Every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live.”

“Self-determination is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril.”

“I traveled a good deal all over the world, and I got along pretty good in all these foreign countries, for I have a theory that it's their country and they got a right to run it like they want to.”

“I don't care how poor and inefficient a little country is - they like to run their own business. I know men that would -make my wife a better husband than I am but, darn it, I'm not going to give her to 'em.”

“Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.”

“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.”

“Either define the moment or the moment will define you.”

“It's my choice, to choose how to live my life.”

“When I'm in management meetings when we're deciding my future, those decisions are left up to me. I'm the one who has to go out and fulfill all these obligations, so I should be able to choose which ones I do or not. That's the part of my life where I feel most in control.”

“Every man is captain of his career and there must be cooperation all around if he is to get what he wants out of life.”

“For themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have they have right to hold.”

“You are the only one who gets to decide what you will be remembered for.”

“Lead a life of your own design, on your own terms-not one that others, or the environment havescripted for you.”

“The future inhabitants of [both] the Atlantic and Mississippi states will be our sons. We think we see their happiness in their union, and we wish it. Events may prove otherwise; and if they see their interest in separating why should we take sides? God bless them both, and keep them in union if it be for their good, but separate them if it be better.”

“If you don't like what you're doing, then don't do it.”

“Everything is generated through your own will power.”

“Be not the slave of your own past.”

“All you umpires, back to the bleachers. Referees, hit the showers. It's my game. I pitch, I hit, I catch. I run the bases. At sunset, I've won or lost. At sunrise, I'm out again, giving it the old try.”

“Everything is generated through your own will power. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. This is a democracy. You go where you want to go and do what you want to do.”

“Swaraj is our birthright. No one can deprive us of it unless we forfeit it ourselves.”

“You define your own life. Don't let other people write your script.”

“You are responsible for your life. It doesn't matter what your Mama did. It doesn't matter what your Daddy didn't do. You are responsible for your life.”

“You want to be in the driver’s seat of your own life because if you are not, life will drive you.”

“You must have some vision for your life. Even if you don't know the plan, you have to have a direction in which you choose to go... You want to be in the driver's seat of your own life because if you are not, life will drive you.”

“We have to steer our true life’s course. Whatever your calling is in life! The whole purpose of being here is to figure out what that is as soon as possible, so you go about the business of being on track, of not being owned by what your mother said, what society said, whatever people think a woman is supposed to be when you can exceed other people’s expectations and be defined by your own!”

“Don't live your life to please other people.”

“You are the author of your own life...Don't let others define it for you. Real power comes by doing what you are meant to be doing, and doing it well.”

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

“I made the decision I will own my own show. So never again will I ever be told what I can and can not do.”

“If you make a choice that goes against what everyone else thinks, the world will not fall apart.”

“If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no DESIRE of your own.”

“I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”

“Duty does not require any person to submit to the destruction of his personal ambitions and the right to live his own life in his own way.”

“I was told many years ago by my grandmother who raised me: If somebody puts you on a road and you don't feel comfortable on it and you look ahead and you don't like the destination and you look behind and you don't want to return to that place, step off the road.”

“When the Negro was completely an underdog, he needed white spokesmen. Liberals played their parts in this period exceedingly well.... But now that the Negro has rejected his role as an underdog, he has become more assertive in his search for identity and group solidarity; he wants to speak for himself.”

“Just remember that you don't have to be what they want you to be.”

“Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment, and to build your own life to order.”

“I'm definitely gonna be the People's champion ... but I just ain't gonna be the champ the way you want me to be the champ. I'm gonna be the champ the way I wanna be.”

“I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.”

“Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the 'leaders' must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.”

“So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind - it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact - I can only submit to the edict of others.”

“The real names of our people were destroyed during slavery. The last name of my forefathers was taken from them when they were brought to America and made slaves, and then the name of the slave master was given, which we refuse, we reject that name today and refuse it. I never acknowledge it whatsoever.”

“Never allow your enemies to educate your children.”

“I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn't be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”

“If every component part of the nation claims the right of self-determination for itself, there is no one nation and there is no independence.”