Quotes about Self-determination

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.

Circumstance does not make the man;

So You will be what you will to be; Let failure find its false content In that poor word, 'environment,' But spirit scorns it, and is free.

No power, no event, no circumstance, can compel a man to evil and unhappiness. He himself is his own compeller. He thinks and acts by his own volition. No being, however wise and great--not even the Supreme--can make him good and happy. He himself must choose the good, and thereby find the happy.

Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By

Nothing happens by itself... it all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions.

Women ought to be free - as free as we are,' he declared, making a discovery of which he was too irritated to measure the terrific consequences.

Every man should have the right to choose their destiny.

Only the man who says no is free

I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men's rights.

. . . the man is free, we say, who exists for his own sake and not for another's.

Man everywhere has an unconquerable desire to be the master of his own destiny.