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independence quotes

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“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.” Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian
“The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.” Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays
“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
“Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence.” Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
“For the principle of equality begets two tendencies; the one leads men straight to independence, and may suddenly drive them into anarchy; the other conducts them by a longer, more secret, but more certain road, to servitude.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
“Independence is all very well, but we animals never allow our friends to make fools of themselves beyond a certain limit; and that limit you've reached.” Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
“It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a privilege of the strong.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
“In matters of thought and conduct, to be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to be detested.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
“Even though I'm only fourteen, I know what I want, I know who's right and who's wrong, I have my own opinions, ideas and principles, and though it may sound odd coming from a teenager, I feel I'm more of a person than a child—I feel I'm...” Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
“The world is independent of my will.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
“No man could demand from him an account of his actions; God, if he believed in one—his conscience, if he had one—were the sole judges to whom he was answerable.” Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
“Education is experience, and the essence of experience is self-reliance.” T. H. White, The Once and Future King
“Ah! sir, live—live in the bosom of the waters! There only is independence! There I recognise no masters! There I am free!” Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
“The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent.” Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
“My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.” Richard Branson, Losing My Virginity
“Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away!” Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“I hate this life of the fashionable world, always ordered, measured, ruled, like our music-paper. What I have always wished for, desired, and coveted, is the life of an artist, free and independent, relying only on my own resources, and...” Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
“Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.” Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
“There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics.” Mao Zedong, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung
“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.” William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
“You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.” Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“I know no country in which there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in America.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
“I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life.” Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
“Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient. Happy men have no time and no use for you. Happy men are free men.” Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
“Nations thus tempted to interfere are not always able to resist the counsels of seeming expediency and ungenerous ambition, although measures adopted under such influences seldom fail to be unfortunate and injurious to those adopting them.” Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union Address
“It is any man's privilege to destroy himself, so long as he does not injure anyone else, so long as he lives to and of himself” William Faulkner, Light in August
“Are you in earnest resolved never to barter your liberty for the lordly servitude of a court, but to live free, fearless, and independent?” Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
“It is, that human beings are no longer born to their place in life, and chained down by an inexorable bond to the place they are born to, but are free to employ their faculties, and such favourable chances as offer, to achieve the lot which may...” John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
“The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence—these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.” Albert Einstein, The world as I see it
“all it takes is a change of attitude: I'm not going to look for happiness anymore. From now on, I'm independent; I see life through my eyes and not through other people's. I'm going in search of the adventure of being alive. ” Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello
“I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Freedom, Alvah, freedom.” Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
“Sir . . . with no intention to take offence, I deny your right to put words into my mouth.” Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
“To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect and their oneness, and should insist upon choosing as their representatives only such persons as are good and true.” Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of my Experiments with Truth
“To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.” Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Related topics

freedom servitude happiness will desire liberty discussion equality loneliness democracy America world politics justice thought love life God individualism action

Related authors

Ayn Rand (6)
Alexis de Tocqueville (2)
Jules Verne (2)
Dr. Seuss (2)
Christopher Hitchens (1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1)
Emma Goldman (1)
John Stuart Mill (1)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1)
William Shakespeare (1)
Anne Frank (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)
Paulo Coelho (1)
Haruki Murakami (1)
Albert Einstein (1)
Abraham Lincoln (1)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1)
Mahatma Gandhi (1)
Adam Smith (1)
Alexandre Dumas (1)

Related sources

The Fountainhead (6)
Democracy in America (2)
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (2)
Oh, The Places You'll Go! (2)
Self-Reliance (1)
Anarchism and Other Essays (1)
Beyond Good and Evil (1)
The world as I see it (1)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1)
Jane Eyre (1)
The Story of my Experiments with Truth (1)
The Diary of a Young Girl (1)
State of the Union Address (1)
The Subjection of Women (1)
Much Ado About Nothing (1)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1)
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1)
The Wind in the Willows (1)
Losing My Virginity (1)
Treasure Island (1)