Quotes about Independence

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

It is important to foster individuality, for only the individual can produce the new ideas.

I was made acutely aware how far superior an education that stresses independent action and personal responsibility is to one that relies on drill, external authority and ambition.

Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.

Second, the teacher should be given extensive liberty in the selection of the material to be taught and the methods of teaching employed by him. For it is true also of him that pleasure in the shaping of his work is killed by force and exterior pressure.

I am thankful for all those who said no to me. It's because of them I am doing it myself!

Autoritätsdusel ist der größte Feind der Wahrheit. / Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

But as time goes on, they, as all men, will find that independence was not made for man—that it is an unnatural state—will do for a while, but will not carry us on safely to the end . . .

Other people can't make you see with their eyes. At the best they can only encourage you to use your own.

Ah, if only one had work of one's own, proper work, decent work—not forced upon one by the griping of one's belly!

You can chase a bird from your porch, but you can not take away its ability to fly.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own.And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.