self-determination

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
8ce0416	You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.	self-determination	John Green
09887f1	I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.	empowerment flaws freedom gender identity image independence integrity realism self-awareness self-determination women	Charlotte Brontë
86eee8f	I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it	be-yourself inspirational misquote self-determination	Maya Angelou
fdaaf7e	"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. (Popular misquote of "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.")"	inspirational misquote self-determination	Maya Angelou
035758c	You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.	self-determination	Maya Angelou
3459977	I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.	double-standards empowerment equality feminism flattery gender hypocrisy independence men misogyny rationality reason self-determination social-norms stereotypes strength women women-s-rights	Jane Austen
13dd10a	There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.	dignity elizabeth-bennet empowerment fear independence intimidation self-determination strength stubbornness women	Jane Austen
fec94b8	care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.	defiance empowerment independence individuality self-assurance self-awareness self-containment self-determination self-esteem self-reliance self-respect self-sufficiency self-trust solitude	Charlotte Brontë
3e5dec6	Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself.	be-yourself identity individuality inspirational life self-determination self-esteem self-expression	Harvey Fierstein
78f9e34	I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.	empowerment equality experience freedom gender independence men reason self-determination submission superiority women women-s-rights	Charlotte Brontë
e23a7d0	Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.	growing-up innocence inspirational parenting personal-responsibility right-of-passage self-determination self-responsibility	Anne Frank
ce05dfe	Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.	change inspirational self-determination	Maya Angelou
5c65487	I am not an angel,' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate.	empowerment flaws freedom gender ideal-woman identity image independence integrity love men realism romance self-awareness self-determination women	Charlotte Brontë
d87db97	As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.	dignity double-standards empowerment feminism gender hypocrisy intelligence men misogyny self-determination social-norms stereotypes thought women	Virginia Woolf
ae26b5f	The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.	independence individuality inspirational self-assurance self-awareness self-containment self-determination self-esteem self-reliance self-respect self-sufficiency self-trust solitude ataraxy	Michel de Montaigne
2a98819	There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point... The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.	existentialism follow-your-bliss self-actualization self-determination	Richard Dawkins
d39ad0c	You cannot change what you are, only what you do.	change life self-determination	Philip Pullman
cf0b8e5	Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.	inspirational life self-determination self-reliance anticipation	Dr. Seuss
88dcc81	Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.	buffy-the-vampire-slayer changes inspirational life self-determination self-discovery strength whistler	Joss Whedon
7f29ea0	The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.	be-yourself inspirational self-determination	Leo Buscaglia
33bdd99	I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.	courtship empowerment freedom happiness husbands independence love marriage self-determination singles wooing	William Shakespeare
d2d92df	Oh, Lizzy! do anything rather than marry without affection.	duty feelings integrity joy love marriage matrimony romance self-determination	Jane Austen
c0cd1f7	"I am not an angel," I asserted; "and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself."	empowerment flaws freedom gender ideal-woman identity image independence integrity realism self-awareness self-determination women	Charlotte Brontë
281f1e5	You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!	be-yourself inspirational self-awareness self-determination	John Lennon
acee414	Maybe your country is only a place you make up in your own mind. Something you dream about and sing about. Maybe it's not a place on the map at all, but just a story full of people you meet and places you visit, full of books and films you've been to. I'm not afraid of being homesick and having no language to live in. I don't have to be like anyone else. I'm walking on the wall and nobody can stop me.	anchoring attachment belonging country empowerment home homelessness independence individuality inspirational nationality roots self-assurance self-awareness self-containment self-determination self-esteem self-reliance self-respect self-sufficiency self-trust	Hugo Hamilton
2c03670	"You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner." (Elizabeth Bennett)"	behaviour declaration empowerment gentlemanlike gentlemen humiliation love marriage-proposal men mr-darcy pride proposal propriety refusal rejection scorn self-determination women	Jane Austen
cdbce2c	None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.	inspirational self-determination self-expression	Ralph Waldo Emerson
76013fc	I'll fight when needed, revel when there's an occasion, mourn when there is grief and die if my time comes...But I will not let anyone use me against my will.	self-determination	Christopher Paolini
02aeca1	The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.	fate fear ignorance life order secrets self-determination superstition	Cormac McCarthy
c4c56df	The little things, I can obey. The big things--how we think, what we value--those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone--or any society--determine those for you.	self-determination	Mitch Albom
17d61bf	"There are certain phrases potent to make my blood boil -- improper influence! What old woman's cackle is that?" "Are you a young lady?" "I am a thousand times better: I am an honest woman, and as such I will be treated."	expectations gender honesty independence influence integrity love marriage matrimony propriety respect self-determination self-respect uprightness women	Charlotte Brontë
669a047	Always in life an idea starts small, it is only a sapling idea, but the vines will come and they will try to choke your idea so it cannot grow and it will die and you will never know you had a big idea, an idea so big it could have grown thirty meters through the dark canopy of leaves and touched the face of the sky.' He looked at me and continued. 'The vines are people who are afraid of originality, of new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines; when you are a young plant they are very dangerous.' His piercing blue eyes looked into mine.' Always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life.	self-determination	Bryce Courtenay
9a5c6a1	You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.	free-will freedom self-determination	Sam Harris
98242f1	I felt the taste of mortality in my mouth, and at that moment I understood that I was not going to live forever. It takes a long time to learn that, but when you finally do, everything changes inside you, you can never be the same again. I was seventeen years old, and all of a sudden, without the slightest flicker of a doubt, I understood that my life was my own, that it belonged to me and no one else. I'm talking about freedom, Fogg. A sense of despair that becomes so great, so crushing, so catastrophic, that you have no choice but to be liberated by it. That's the only choice, or else you crawl into a corner and die.	freedom life philosophy self-determination	Paul Auster
7dfac29	We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day.	inspirational religious self-determination self-improvement	Richard G. Scott
26baa96	Always listen to yourself... It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention.	self-determination	Bryce Courtenay
d6b8f43	LEONATO Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband. BEATRICE Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.	empowerment equality freedom happiness husbands independence marriage matrimony men self-determination singles	William Shakespeare
54f51dc	Now look at me! Take a good look! I was born and I knew I was alive and I knew what I wanted. What do you think is alive in me? Why do you think I'm alive? Because I have a stomach and eat and digest the food? Because I breathe and work and produce more food to digest? Or because I know what I want, and that something which knows how to want--isn't that life itself? And who--in this damned universe--who can tell me why I should live for anything but for that which I want?	self-determination	Ayn Rand
c383efa	LEONATO Well, then, go you into hell? BEATRICE No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here's no place for you maids:' so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.	empowerment freedom happiness heaven husbands independence marriage matrimony self-determination singles	William Shakespeare
3b5cdcb	I am anchored on a resolve you cannot shake. My heart, my conscience shall dispose of my hand -- . Know this at last.	conscience courtship dignity empowerment feminism gender independence integrity love marriage matrimony self-determination social-norms women wooing	Charlotte Brontë
2428b8f	"No: I shall not marry Samuel Fawthrop Wynne." "I ask why? I must have a reason. In all respects he is more than worthy of you." She stood on the hearth; she was pale as the white marble slab and cornice behind her; her eyes flashed large, dilated, unsmiling. "And ask in what sense that young man is worthy of ?"	courtship dignity empowerment equality feminism gender independence inferiority integrity marriage marriage-proposal matrimony men self-awareness self-determination social-norms suitability women wooing worthiness	Charlotte Brontë
dccf0d0	Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy and say 'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say 'Father, as it please me.	courtship dignity empowerment happiness husbands independence love marriage marriage-proposal matrimony pleasure self-determination wooing	William Shakespeare
9dcd321	Let every man be master of his time.	life self-determination time	William Shakespeare
af1d004	Chastity ... has, even now, a religious importance in a woman's life, and has so wrapped itself round with nerves and instincts that to cut it free and bring it to the light of day demands courage of the rarest.	dignity double-standards empowerment encroachment feminism gender hypocrisy liberty misogyny morality self-determination sexuality social-norms suppression women	Virginia Woolf
d0ecf42	I told you in the course of this paper that Shakespeare had a sister; but do not look for her in 's of the poet. She died young--alas, she never wrote a word. She lies buried where the omnibuses now stop, opposite the Elephant and Castle. Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the crossroads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh.	dignity dreams empowerment equality feminism fiction gender opportunities poetry self-determination social-norms women women-writers	Virginia Woolf
4dbd6dc	If [God] send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening ...	blessings empowerment freedom happiness husbands independence marriage matrimony self-determination singles	William Shakespeare
9bfa0cf	In the end there is nothing to be done but to state clearly what has been done, without shame or regret, and say: Here I am, and this is what I am. Now deal with me as you see fit. That is your right. Mine is to stand by the act, and pay the price. You do what you must do, and pay for it. So in the end all things are simple.	judgment penance responsibility self-determination	Ellis Peters
f2e0593	[In 16th century European society] Marriage was the triumphal arch through which women, almost without exception, had to pass in order to reach the public eye. And after marriage followed, in theory, the total self-abnegation of the woman.	empowerment feminism gender history independence inequality marriage married-life matrimony men misogyny perception self-abnegation self-determination social-norms subjugation wedlock women women-s-rights	Antonia Fraser
9df7f29	"There is no sin unless through a man's own will, and hence the reward when we do right things also of our own will." ( )"	salvation self-determination sin	St. Augustine of Hippo
64c706d	Every man has within him only one life and one nature ... It behooves a man to look within himself and turn to the best dedication possible those endowments he has from his Maker. You do no wrong in questioning what once you held to be right for you, if now it has come to seem wrong. Put away all thought of being bound. We do not want you bound. No one who is not free can give freely.	conduct-of-life free-will freedom giving life self-determination	Ellis Peters
6ef0852	Fate is unalterable only in the sense that given a cause, a certain result must follow, but no cause is inevitable in itself, and man can shape his world if he does not resign himself to ignorance.	destiny education fate ignorance self-determination understanding	Pearl S. Buck
69fcb91	It was a fact generally acknowledged by all but the most contumacious spirits at the beginning of the seventeenth century that woman was the weaker vessel; weaker than man, that is. ... That was the way God had arranged Creation, sanctified in the words of the Apostle. ... Under the common law of England at the accession of King James I, no female had any rights at all (if some were allowed by custom). As an unmarried woman her rights were swallowed up in her father's, and she was his to dispose of in marriage at will. Once she was married her property became absolutely that of her husband. What of those who did not marry? Common law met that problem blandly by not recognizing it. In the words of [the leading 17th century compendium on women's legal status]: 'All of them are understood either married or to be married.' In 1603 England, in short, still lived in a world governed by feudal law, where a wife passed from the guardianship of her father to her husband; her husband also stood in relation to her as a feudal lord.	common-law empowerment fathers feminism feudalism gender guardianship history husbands independence inequality marriage married-life matrimony men misogyny property self-determination social-norms subjugation wedlock women women-s-rights	Antonia Fraser
d802bdc	"Milton's Eve! Milton's Eve! ... Milton tried to see the first woman; but Cary, he saw her not ... I would beg to remind him that the first men of the earth were Titans, and that Eve was their mother: from her sprang Saturn, Hyperion, Oceanus; she bore Prometheus" -- "Pagan that you are! what does that signify?" "I say, there were giants on the earth in those days: giants that strove to scale heaven. The first woman's breast that heaved with life on this world yielded the daring which could contend with Omnipotence: the stregth which could bear a thousand years of bondage, -- the vitality which could feed that vulture death through uncounted ages, -- the unexhausted life and uncorrupted excellence, sisters to immortality, which after millenniums of crimes, struggles, and woes, could conceive and bring forth a Messiah. The first woman was heaven-born: vast was the heart whence gushed the well-spring of the blood of nations; and grand the undegenerate head where rested the consort-crown of creation. ... I saw -- I now see -- a woman-Titan: her robe of blue air spreads to the outskirts of the heath, where yonder flock is grazing; a veil white as an avalanche sweeps from hear head to her feet, and arabesques of lighting flame on its borders. Under her breast I see her zone, purple like that horizon: through its blush shines the star of evening. Her steady eyes I cannot picture; they are clear -- they are deep as lakes -- they are lifted and full of worship -- they tremble with the softness of love and the lustre of prayer. Her forehead has the expanse of a cloud, and is paler than the early moon, risen long before dark gathers: she reclines her bosom on the ridge of Stilbro' Moor; her mighty hands are joined beneath it. So kneeling, face to face she speaks with God. That Eve is Jehova's daughter, as Adam was His son."	empowerment eve gender god godliness greatness independence nature self-determination strength superiority titans women	Charlotte Brontë
576a5f8	"I'm not going to be like my mother. You're maniacs. You're mad." "Yes," said Kate. "I know it. And so you won't be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be instead?"	self-determination	Doris Lessing
907aa5f	...it is the most militant, most radical intervention anyone can make to not only speak of love, but to engage in the practice of love. For love as the foundation of all social movements for self-determination is the only way we create a world that domination and dominator thinking cannot destroy. Anytime we do the work of love we are doing the work of ending domination.	love self-determination social-justice	bell hooks
143ca0f	I am not your king, impudent larva? Who then has created you? You. But you should not have created me free.	freedom humanity liberty mankind self-determination	Jean-Paul Sartre

You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.

John Green

09887f1

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.

empowerment flaws freedom gender identity image independence integrity realism self-awareness self-determination women

Charlotte Brontë

86eee8f

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it

be-yourself inspirational misquote self-determination

Maya Angelou

fdaaf7e

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. (Popular misquote of "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.")"

inspirational misquote self-determination

Maya Angelou

035758c

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

self-determination

Maya Angelou

3459977

I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.

double-standards empowerment equality feminism flattery gender hypocrisy independence men misogyny rationality reason self-determination social-norms stereotypes strength women women-s-rights

Jane Austen

13dd10a

There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.

dignity elizabeth-bennet empowerment fear independence intimidation self-determination strength stubbornness women

Jane Austen

fec94b8

care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.

defiance empowerment independence individuality self-assurance self-awareness self-containment self-determination self-esteem self-reliance self-respect self-sufficiency self-trust solitude

Charlotte Brontë

3e5dec6

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself.

be-yourself identity individuality inspirational life self-determination self-esteem self-expression

Harvey Fierstein

78f9e34

I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.

empowerment equality experience freedom gender independence men reason self-determination submission superiority women women-s-rights

Charlotte Brontë

e23a7d0

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

growing-up innocence inspirational parenting personal-responsibility right-of-passage self-determination self-responsibility

Anne Frank

ce05dfe

Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.

change inspirational self-determination

Maya Angelou

5c65487

I am not an angel,' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate.

empowerment flaws freedom gender ideal-woman identity image independence integrity love men realism romance self-awareness self-determination women

Charlotte Brontë

d87db97

As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.

dignity double-standards empowerment feminism gender hypocrisy intelligence men misogyny self-determination social-norms stereotypes thought women

Virginia Woolf

ae26b5f

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

independence individuality inspirational self-assurance self-awareness self-containment self-determination self-esteem self-reliance self-respect self-sufficiency self-trust solitude ataraxy

Michel de Montaigne

2a98819

There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point... The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.

existentialism follow-your-bliss self-actualization self-determination

Richard Dawkins

d39ad0c

You cannot change what you are, only what you do.

change life self-determination

Philip Pullman

cf0b8e5

Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.

inspirational life self-determination self-reliance anticipation

Dr. Seuss

88dcc81

Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.

buffy-the-vampire-slayer changes inspirational life self-determination self-discovery strength whistler

Joss Whedon

7f29ea0

The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.

be-yourself inspirational self-determination

Leo Buscaglia

33bdd99

I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.

courtship empowerment freedom happiness husbands independence love marriage self-determination singles wooing

William Shakespeare

d2d92df

Oh, Lizzy! do anything rather than marry without affection.

duty feelings integrity joy love marriage matrimony romance self-determination

Jane Austen

c0cd1f7

"I am not an angel," I asserted; "and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself."

empowerment flaws freedom gender ideal-woman identity image independence integrity realism self-awareness self-determination women

Charlotte Brontë

281f1e5

You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

be-yourself inspirational self-awareness self-determination

John Lennon

acee414

Maybe your country is only a place you make up in your own mind. Something you dream about and sing about. Maybe it's not a place on the map at all, but just a story full of people you meet and places you visit, full of books and films you've been to. I'm not afraid of being homesick and having no language to live in. I don't have to be like anyone else. I'm walking on the wall and nobody can stop me.

anchoring attachment belonging country empowerment home homelessness independence individuality inspirational nationality roots self-assurance self-awareness self-containment self-determination self-esteem self-reliance self-respect self-sufficiency self-trust

Hugo Hamilton

2c03670

"You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner." (Elizabeth Bennett)"

behaviour declaration empowerment gentlemanlike gentlemen humiliation love marriage-proposal men mr-darcy pride proposal propriety refusal rejection scorn self-determination women

Jane Austen

cdbce2c

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

inspirational self-determination self-expression

Ralph Waldo Emerson

76013fc

I'll fight when needed, revel when there's an occasion, mourn when there is grief and die if my time comes...But I will not let anyone use me against my will.

self-determination

Christopher Paolini

02aeca1

The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.

fate fear ignorance life order secrets self-determination superstition

Cormac McCarthy

c4c56df

The little things, I can obey. The big things--how we think, what we value--those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone--or any society--determine those for you.

self-determination

Mitch Albom

17d61bf

"There are certain phrases potent to make my blood boil -- improper influence! What old woman's cackle is that?" "Are you a young lady?" "I am a thousand times better: I am an honest woman, and as such I will be treated."

expectations gender honesty independence influence integrity love marriage matrimony propriety respect self-determination self-respect uprightness women

Charlotte Brontë

669a047

Always in life an idea starts small, it is only a sapling idea, but the vines will come and they will try to choke your idea so it cannot grow and it will die and you will never know you had a big idea, an idea so big it could have grown thirty meters through the dark canopy of leaves and touched the face of the sky.' He looked at me and continued. 'The vines are people who are afraid of originality, of new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines; when you are a young plant they are very dangerous.' His piercing blue eyes looked into mine.' Always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life.

self-determination

Bryce Courtenay

9a5c6a1

You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.

free-will freedom self-determination

Sam Harris

98242f1

I felt the taste of mortality in my mouth, and at that moment I understood that I was not going to live forever. It takes a long time to learn that, but when you finally do, everything changes inside you, you can never be the same again. I was seventeen years old, and all of a sudden, without the slightest flicker of a doubt, I understood that my life was my own, that it belonged to me and no one else. I'm talking about freedom, Fogg. A sense of despair that becomes so great, so crushing, so catastrophic, that you have no choice but to be liberated by it. That's the only choice, or else you crawl into a corner and die.

freedom life philosophy self-determination

Paul Auster

7dfac29

We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day.

inspirational religious self-determination self-improvement

Richard G. Scott

26baa96

Always listen to yourself... It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention.

self-determination

Bryce Courtenay

d6b8f43

LEONATO Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband. BEATRICE Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

empowerment equality freedom happiness husbands independence marriage matrimony men self-determination singles

William Shakespeare

54f51dc

Now look at me! Take a good look! I was born and I knew I was alive and I knew what I wanted. What do you think is alive in me? Why do you think I'm alive? Because I have a stomach and eat and digest the food? Because I breathe and work and produce more food to digest? Or because I know what I want, and that something which knows how to want--isn't that life itself? And who--in this damned universe--who can tell me why I should live for anything but for that which I want?

self-determination

Ayn Rand

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LEONATO Well, then, go you into hell? BEATRICE No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here's no place for you maids:' so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.

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William Shakespeare

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I am anchored on a resolve you cannot shake. My heart, my conscience shall dispose of my hand -- . Know this at last.

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Charlotte Brontë

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"No: I shall not marry Samuel Fawthrop Wynne." "I ask why? I must have a reason. In all respects he is more than worthy of you." She stood on the hearth; she was pale as the white marble slab and cornice behind her; her eyes flashed large, dilated, unsmiling. "And ask in what sense that young man is worthy of ?"

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Charlotte Brontë

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Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy and say 'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say 'Father, as it please me.

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William Shakespeare

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Let every man be master of his time.

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William Shakespeare

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Chastity ... has, even now, a religious importance in a woman's life, and has so wrapped itself round with nerves and instincts that to cut it free and bring it to the light of day demands courage of the rarest.

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Virginia Woolf

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I told you in the course of this paper that Shakespeare had a sister; but do not look for her in 's of the poet. She died young--alas, she never wrote a word. She lies buried where the omnibuses now stop, opposite the Elephant and Castle. Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the crossroads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh.

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Virginia Woolf

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If [God] send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening ...

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William Shakespeare

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In the end there is nothing to be done but to state clearly what has been done, without shame or regret, and say: Here I am, and this is what I am. Now deal with me as you see fit. That is your right. Mine is to stand by the act, and pay the price. You do what you must do, and pay for it. So in the end all things are simple.

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Ellis Peters

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[In 16th century European society] Marriage was the triumphal arch through which women, almost without exception, had to pass in order to reach the public eye. And after marriage followed, in theory, the total self-abnegation of the woman.

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Antonia Fraser

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"There is no sin unless through a man's own will, and hence the reward when we do right things also of our own will." ( )"

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St. Augustine of Hippo

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Every man has within him only one life and one nature ... It behooves a man to look within himself and turn to the best dedication possible those endowments he has from his Maker. You do no wrong in questioning what once you held to be right for you, if now it has come to seem wrong. Put away all thought of being bound. We do not want you bound. No one who is not free can give freely.

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Ellis Peters

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Fate is unalterable only in the sense that given a cause, a certain result must follow, but no cause is inevitable in itself, and man can shape his world if he does not resign himself to ignorance.

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Pearl S. Buck

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It was a fact generally acknowledged by all but the most contumacious spirits at the beginning of the seventeenth century that woman was the weaker vessel; weaker than man, that is. ... That was the way God had arranged Creation, sanctified in the words of the Apostle. ... Under the common law of England at the accession of King James I, no female had any rights at all (if some were allowed by custom). As an unmarried woman her rights were swallowed up in her father's, and she was his to dispose of in marriage at will. Once she was married her property became absolutely that of her husband. What of those who did not marry? Common law met that problem blandly by not recognizing it. In the words of [the leading 17th century compendium on women's legal status]: 'All of them are understood either married or to be married.' In 1603 England, in short, still lived in a world governed by feudal law, where a wife passed from the guardianship of her father to her husband; her husband also stood in relation to her as a feudal lord.

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Antonia Fraser

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"Milton's Eve! Milton's Eve! ... Milton tried to see the first woman; but Cary, he saw her not ... I would beg to remind him that the first men of the earth were Titans, and that Eve was their mother: from her sprang Saturn, Hyperion, Oceanus; she bore Prometheus" -- "Pagan that you are! what does that signify?" "I say, there were giants on the earth in those days: giants that strove to scale heaven. The first woman's breast that heaved with life on this world yielded the daring which could contend with Omnipotence: the stregth which could bear a thousand years of bondage, -- the vitality which could feed that vulture death through uncounted ages, -- the unexhausted life and uncorrupted excellence, sisters to immortality, which after millenniums of crimes, struggles, and woes, could conceive and bring forth a Messiah. The first woman was heaven-born: vast was the heart whence gushed the well-spring of the blood of nations; and grand the undegenerate head where rested the consort-crown of creation. ... I saw -- I now see -- a woman-Titan: her robe of blue air spreads to the outskirts of the heath, where yonder flock is grazing; a veil white as an avalanche sweeps from hear head to her feet, and arabesques of lighting flame on its borders. Under her breast I see her zone, purple like that horizon: through its blush shines the star of evening. Her steady eyes I cannot picture; they are clear -- they are deep as lakes -- they are lifted and full of worship -- they tremble with the softness of love and the lustre of prayer. Her forehead has the expanse of a cloud, and is paler than the early moon, risen long before dark gathers: she reclines her bosom on the ridge of Stilbro' Moor; her mighty hands are joined beneath it. So kneeling, face to face she speaks with God. That Eve is Jehova's daughter, as Adam was His son."

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Charlotte Brontë

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"I'm not going to be like my mother. You're maniacs. You're mad." "Yes," said Kate. "I know it. And so you won't be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be instead?"

self-determination

Doris Lessing

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...it is the most militant, most radical intervention anyone can make to not only speak of love, but to engage in the practice of love. For love as the foundation of all social movements for self-determination is the only way we create a world that domination and dominator thinking cannot destroy. Anytime we do the work of love we are doing the work of ending domination.

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bell hooks

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I am not your king, impudent larva? Who then has created you? You. But you should not have created me free.

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Jean-Paul Sartre