Quotes about Independence
I reckon a man in a tight might let Bill Varner patch him up like a mule, but I be damned if the man that'd let Anse Bundren treat him with raw cement aint got more spare legs than I have.
— William Faulkner
the idea (not mine: your great-grandfather's) being that even at eleven a man should already have behind him one year of paying for, assuming responsibility for, the space he occupied, the room he took up, in the world's (Jefferson, Mississippi's, anyway) economy.
— William Faulkner
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves. (1778 - 1830)
— William Hazlitt
Since the Exodus, freedom has always spoken with a Hebrew accent.
— Heinrich Heine
The German is like the slave who, without chains, obeys his masters merest word, his very glance. The condition of servitude is inherent in him, in his very soul and worse than the physical is the spiritual slavery. The Germans must be set free from wit
— Heinrich Heine
The same fact that Boccaccio offers in support of religion might be adduced in behalf of a republic: It exists in spite of its ministers."
— Heinrich Heine
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but to so love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust
— Henry David Thoreau
I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.
— Henry David Thoreau
I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.
— Henry David Thoreau
Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.
— Henry David Thoreau
A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.
— Henry David Thoreau
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.
— Henry David Thoreau