Quotes about Self-determination

It is for men to choose whether they will govern themselves or be governed.

My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me.

A man is the origin of his action.

I'd never take a job where I had to do something that I didn't want to do.

Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate.

Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insuffcient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him—mentally and spiritually.

man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.

I fought all my life for women to make their own choices, in their personal and professional lives. I made mine.

Unless we include a job as part of every citizen's right to autonomy and personal fulfillment, women will continue to be vulnerable to someone else's idea of what need is.

It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains.

What I do with my life is of my own doing. I live it the best way I can. I've been criticized on many, many occasions, because of - acquaintances, and what have you.

No one else can live your life for you. No one else can succeed for you!