Quotes about Autonomy

The egotist in the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices others. He is the man who stands above the need of using others in any manner. He does not function through them. He is not concerned with them in any primary matter. Not in his aim, not in his motive, not in his thinking, not in his desires, not in the source of his energy. He does not exist for any other man—and he asks no other man to exist for him.

You'll get everything society can give a man. You'll keep all the money. You'll take any fame or honor anyone might want to grant. You'll accept such gratitude as the tenants might feel. And I—I'll take what nobody can give a man, except himself.

A thinking child cannot conform. Thought does not bow to authority.

I have the power to choose my response.

I don't try to explain or justify my actions. I simply do what I do.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Rule #1 You're the Driver of Your Bus.

Because if the Will be already inclined, before it exerts its own sovereign power on itself, then its inclination is not wholly owing to itself:

If man is nothing but a material mechanism and part of the world mechanism, then his choices of good and evil are mechanically determined, and he cannot be said to be an autonomous and responsible ethical being. Thus if materialism is to save moral responsibility and at the same time save determinism, it must represent man as partially determined (in his organic functions) and partially free (in his ethical capacity).

That country where they wouldn't be told what to think or how to live or even whether or how to worship.

This brings home the saying and mantra for the future—"Nothing about me without me"—which should and will undeniably apply to individuals when they assume the role of IAPs.38

Freedom is relative.