Quotes about Autonomy

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self?

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.

And truly it demands something godlike in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!

Why should the way I feel depend on the thoughts in someone else's head?

Nothing can work me damage except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault.

Living under the tremendous illusion that personal freedoms and freedom of speech are devoid of moral assumptions and responsibilities, we have bankrupted ourselves, so that honor, truth, and morality have been sacrificed at the altar of autonomy and self-worship.

Are we really ever completely our own person or have we been conditioned in ways beyond our own imagination?

Go home, and let all your relatives off the potter's wheel. You are not the potter!

When we are overly concerned with what people think we will be controlled by the thoughts and opinions of other people.

I was afraid to let other make any decisions, because I had no confidence they would be concerned for me.

When people want to hear yes, and you tell them no, they never like it. But those who are truly your friends will give you the freedom to make your own decisions. They

We must learn to say no and not fear the loss of relationships. I have come to the conclusion that if I lose a relationship because I tell someone no, then I really never had a true relationship at all.