Quotes about Independence

I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire.

Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it—that no substitute can do your thinking—that the vilest form of self-abasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertions as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as middle-man between your consciousness and your existence.

But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.

For they have nothing to fight me with, save the brute force of their numbers. I have my mind.

I don't make comparisons. I never think of myself in relation to anyone else. I just refuse to measure myself as part of anything. I'm an utter egotist.

If you want my advice, Peter, you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?

A truly selfish man cannot be affected by the approval of others. He doesn't need it.

It's not a question of who will allow me to do it, it's a question of who will stop me.

Man is an end in himself.

There was a great satisfaction to be found in the food which we need and obtain by our own hand.

It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect.