Self-reliance Quotes

One single vision fills all minds: that of our independence endangered. One single duty imposes itself upon our wills: the duty of stubborn resistance.

- Albert II of Belgium

In retrospect, I have come to recognise just how astounding my mother was during our childhood. She kept a woodwork shop and made beautiful furniture, as well as raising the pair of us in a society dominated by men. There really is nothing like war to reveal the power of patriarchy, but she always retained her independence.

- Alexandra Fuller

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

- Alexis de Tocqueville

Conservatives understand that the power that binds our republic together is fierce independence held high on the shoulders of compassion.

- Allen West

I don't want to be any more interesting than I am. I love the life that I get to live, which is one of real independence and privacy and autonomy.

- Allison Williams

When I took the Hippocratic oath and was effectively 'sworn in' as a doctor, I took the same vow that doctors have taken for generations. Patient autonomy is core to this oath.

- Ami Bera

Britain's withdrawal from the E.U., like Donald Trump's proposal to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, is based on a false belief in self-reliance.

- Andrew Solomon

America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.

- Anna Quindlen

I've always tried to keep my integrity and keep my autonomy.

- Annie Lennox

Millions of Americans cannot tell you who lived at Mount Vernon or who wrote the Declaration of Independence - let alone the Emancipation Proclamation. But they know that to be 'a Benedict Arnold' is to be a traitor of the deepest dye - someone who coldly betrays not only a sacred cause but every moral scruple along the way.

- Arthur L. Herman

Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self.

- B. R. Ambedkar

The Fed's independence is critical.

- Ben Bernanke

As an actor there's no autonomy, unless you're prepared to risk the possibility of starving.

- Ben Kingsley

I have an independent streak. You know, it's kind of hard to tell a independent woman what to do.

- Betty Ford

Jobs are what give people a sense of fulfillment and self-reliance.

- Bob McDonnell

Autonomy leads to empowerment. We work hard to maintain a balance between collaboration and cooperation and independence.

- Bobby Kotick

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

- Booker T. Washington

The Remain campaign... I've never seen a more miserable offering. All they are saying is stay in and we'll do our best to make sure that Britain's Parliamentary independence isn't eroded faster than we can possibly imagine.

- Boris Johnson

True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what's right.

- Brigham Young

When Marcus Garvey spoke about self-reliance, he wasn't only talking about people of colour. It's like self-reliance in general, for anyone. Just keep moving and moving within the right direction, and everything will be all right.

- Burning Spear

There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means.

- Calvin Coolidge

The American Revolution and Declaration of Independence, it has often been argued, were fueled by the most radical of all American political ideas.

- Carl Bernstein

There's no alternative to Catalan independence.

- Carles Puigdemont

I do need my independence. I have to have that.

- Carol Vorderman

The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.

- Caroline Kennedy

I'm pretty horrible at relationships and haven't been in many long-term ones. Leaving and moving on - returning to a familiar sense of self-reliance and autonomy - is what I know; that feeling is as comfortable and comforting as it might be for a different kind of person to stay.

- Carrie Brownstein

We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.

- Charles de Montesquieu

I'm for economic independence.

- Charles Evers

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

- Charlotte Bronte

Time is a resource, much like money or autonomy, which can be invaluable or can be squandered.

- Chris Gabrieli

True freedom is the capacity for acting according to one's true character, to be altogether one's self, to be self-determined and not subject to outside coercion.

- Corliss Lamont

Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. These are the building blocks of an entirely new operating system for our businesses.

- Dan Pink

A free and truly independent press - fiercely independent when necessary - is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.

- Dan Rather

Poverty breeds lack of self-reliance.

- Daniel De Leon

I don't think it's a Western thing to really talk about intrinsic motivation and the drive for autonomy, mastery and purpose. You have to not be struggling for survival. For people who don't know where their next meal is coming, notions of finding inner motivation are comical.

- Daniel H. Pink

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.

- David Ben-Gurion

Throughout the day no time for memorandums now. Go ahead! Liberty and independence forever.

- Davy Crockett

Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone.

- Deborah Tannen

Part of Obama's persona is self-reliance. He's calm; he's cool; he's self-possessed. In many ways, he has tried to define himself in opposition to Clinton's sometimes needy, often undisciplined, emotionalism.

- Dee Dee Myers

Listen to the desires of your children. Encourage them and then give them the autonomy to make their own decision.

- Denis Waitley

I wanted to be an independent woman, a woman who could pay for her bills, a woman who could run her own life - and I became that woman.

- Diane von Furstenberg

Living according to the basic gospel principles will bring power, strength, and spiritual self-reliance into the lives of all Latter-day Saints.

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

In the summer of 1776 our Founding Fathers sought to secure our independence and the liberties that remain the foundation of our nation today.

- Doc Hastings

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence.

- Eddie Rickenbacker

To start with, for example this year, 2004, is the bicentennial of Haitian independence.

- Edwidge Danticat

The Labor party under my leadership is working to bring the Israeli people together from all nationalities in the spirit of the scroll of independence.

- Ehud Barak

John Huston was a superb master. He knew how to make good films. I did three things with him. One is called Independence. It plays in Philadelphia, for free. It's been playing there for 25 years.

- Eli Wallach

I absolutely value autonomy. I value freedom and having the ability to implement change right away.

- Elizabeth Chambers

A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away.

- Ellen Glasgow

A person is not merely a single subject distinguished from all the others. It is especially a being to which is attributed a relative autonomy in relation to the environment with which it is most immediately in contact.

- Emile Durkheim

The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

- Emma Goldman

The Declaration of Independence was to set forth the moral justification of a rebellion against a long-recognized political tradition - the divine right of kings.

- Ezra Taft Benson

I don't want to be famous famous. I'm happy on the second tier, where I have autonomy on a professional level but I can still go out to the movies without being recognized.

- Gabrielle Reece

The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life.

- Georg Simmel

Independence? That's middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

- George Bernard Shaw

Originality is independence, not rebellion; it is sincerity, not antagonism.

- George Henry Lewes

It's essential for the U.S. and Europe to prevent Putin from going farther and reversing the hard-won independence of former Soviet republics.

- George Packer

Men spend their whole lives showing that they're strong and silent. They fight for independence the way women struggle to connect.

- George Weinberg

Divorce is a declaration of independence with only two signers.

- Gerald F. Lieberman

I don't have a formula to pass on. I always did it my own way. Even today, I hold my independence close. It's what's most precious to me. Passion. Risk. Tenacity. Consistency. This is my professional history.

- Giorgio Armani

'Feminist comedy,' practically an oxymoron, had a couple of good years after WWII. Chalk it up to the forced female autonomy that occurred during wartime, when Rosie the Riveter went to work in the factories, constructing the Allies' war machines while taking charge of the finances, the home, and the children.

- Grace Slick

The BBC is a victim of its own independence.

- Graham Norton

No effort for autonomy or self-rule can succeed if it is approached illegally.

- Haider al-Abadi

The independence of the United States is not only more precious to ourselves but to the world than any single possession.

- Henry Cabot Lodge

I think self-reliance and self-responsibility and self-accountability will help you as a parent, a teacher, as a citizen as a friend.

- Henry Rollins

If the world market believed that we were serious about energy independence and we were going to utilize all of our own existing resources, the speculators would stop speculating up they start speculating down as we get our own oil out of the ground.

- Herman Cain

Solitude is independence.

- Hermann Hesse

I have grown up alone. I've taken care of myself. I worked, earned money and was independent at 18.

- Ingrid Bergman

One of the most painful things in the Western States and Territories is the extinction of childhood. I have never seen any children - only debased imitations of men and women, cankered by greed and selfishness, and asserting and gaining complete independence of their parents at ten years old.

- Isabella Bird

The patient's autonomy always, always should be respected, even if it is absolutely contrary - the decision is contrary to best medical advice and what the physician wants.

- Jack Kevorkian

I'm for absolute autonomy of the individual, and an adult, competent woman has absolute autonomy. It's her choice.

- Jack Kevorkian

I guess you'd call me an independent, since I've never identified myself with one party or another in politics. I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual candidates and issues themselves, no matter what the party label.

- Jackie Robinson

Self-determination could mean independence, confederacy, federal and autonomy.

- Jalal Talabani

It is very nearly impossible... to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

- James A. Baldwin

The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.

- James Cash Penney

The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.

- James Madison

Women today are dealing with both their independence and also the fact that their lives are built around finding and satisfying the romantic models we grew up with.

- Jane Campion

To most of us, adulthood means being able to earn a living, possess a home, get married and rear children, and this implies having autonomy or control over one's life. In the 19th century, becoming an adult was celebrated as a liberation from paternal authority. Today we regard it more as a time of regret and stagnation.

- Jane Ridley

Americans' information independence is under attack, whether it's the repeal of net neutrality or the repeal of broadband privacy protections.

- Jared Polis

Most stand-up comics relish performing 'in one' - solo. They like the autonomy.

- Jason Alexander

What you get free costs too much.

- Jean Anouilh

Find the autonomy in your work. Autonomy is key to feeling good about the work you do, no matter what kind of work it is.

- Jean Chatzky

Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent.

- Jim Rohn

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.

- John D. Rockefeller

We must develop energy independence; we must Make It In America.

- John Garamendi

The important consequences to the American States from this Declaration of Independence, considered as the ground and foundation of a future government, naturally suggest the propriety of proclaiming it in such a manner as that the people may be universally informed of it.

- John Hancock

Bread without flesh is a good diet, as on many botanical excursions I have proved. Tea also may easily be ignored. Just bread and water and delightful toil is all I need - not unreasonably much, yet one ought to be trained and tempered to enjoy life in these brave wilds in full independence of any particular kind of nourishment.

- John Muir

The most dangerous thing in the world is the sin of self-reliance and the stupor of worldliness.

- John Piper

I will be vigilant to protect the independence and integrity of the Supreme Court, and I will work to ensure that it upholds the rule of law and safeguards those liberties that make this land one of endless possibilities for all Americans.

- John Roberts

I came out of UCB and, before that, punk rock, and the whole deal was you do it yourself. Get up and rent the space, get up and press your own records, get up and silkscreen your own tees, get it done yourself. That sort of self-reliance will only serve me. Any time I lose sight of that, my career suffers.

- John Ross Bowie

At a time when special interest money is being showered on legislators in Washington, grassroots donors offer members of Congress a refreshing independence. The $25 and $50 donor is not looking for special favors. He or she is simply expecting their Congressman to go do the right thing.

- John Sarbanes

The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

- John Stuart Mill

Independence is doing what you want to do, knowing that you're happy with the decisions you're making and that it's the best for you.

- Jorja Smith

American poetry to me is a sort of relentless, nonstop sermon on human autonomy.

- Joseph Brodsky

The best relationship is one that does not foster too much independence nor too much dependence, but exists in the healthy interdependence zone.

- Karen Salmansohn

The idea of self-reliance is important to me, and that is echoed, in my way of thinking, by a conservative approach to politics.

- Kelsey Grammer

Journalists prize independence - not teamwork.

- Ken Auletta

Independence is all very well, but we animals never allow our friends to make fools of themselves beyond a certain limit; and that limit you've reached.

- Kenneth Grahame

Autonomy was shopped to us. We looked at the price and thought it was absurdly high.

- Larry Ellison

We have most of the software industry running Autonomy.

- Larry Ellison

The E.U.'s tax and regulatory policies, climate-change and welfare spending, and free immigration even in wartime are gradually ruining Europe. That's why I believe Brexit is good for British freedom, political autonomy, and the survival of democratic capitalism.

- Lawrence Kudlow

Traditional models of work only let us cross out the needs on the very bottom of the pyramid - basic sustenance. On the flipside, independent employment within the network of the new sharing economy addresses our needs for a sense of community and belonging, autonomy and respect, creativity and problem solving.

- Leah Busque

A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment.

- Lionel Trilling

Freedom comes from strength and self-reliance.

- Lisa Murkowski

Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

- Louis D. Brandeis

The world is independent of my will.

- Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing, that's the Lord's test.

- Mahalia Jackson

I'm a huge fan of the first 'Independence Day.' It is amazing. When it came out in 1995, just how explosive and big it was... I loved it.

- Maika Monroe

Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.

- Malcolm Forbes

The most effective check and balance on government has been an independent press which maintains its credibility by ensuring that its criticism is balanced and based on fact - based indeed on solid journalistic work.

- Malcolm Turnbull

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

The Declaration of Independence was always our vision of who we wanted to be, our ideal of freedom and justice, how we were going to be different, and what the American experiment was going to be about.

- Marian Wright Edelman

Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage.

- Marianne Moore

We, the French, are viscerally attached to our laicite, our sovereignty, our independence, our values. The world knows that when France is attacked, it is liberty that is dealt a blow.

- Marine Le Pen

I admire the courage and self-reliance it takes to start your own business and make it succeed.

- Martha Stewart

Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.

- Mary Wollstonecraft

Independence is a heady draught, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.

- Maya Angelou

The Palestinian Arabs will have their autonomy, we will have our security. We shall live together.

- Menachem Begin

A declaration of the independence of America, and the sovereignty of the United States was drawn by the ingenious and philosophic pen of Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, a delegate from the state of Virginia.

- Mercy Otis Warren

Being a new character is like going to a new school. You have to try to maintain your own autonomy and your own personality.

- Mia Maestro

Our independence from AOL was so important to me that I negotiated an extremely odd provision in our purchase agreement that allowed me to disclose confidential information about AOL. It was their job never to give me that information. It was not my job to protect it in any way.

- Michael Arrington

I don't know what 15-year-old doesn't have a desire to separate themselves from their parents and prove their independence.

- Michelle Williams

The only holiday of independence which I can never leave out is the celebration of the independence of the Jewish State of Israel.

- Milos Zeman

All great enterprises have a pearl of faith at their core, and this must be ours: that Americans are still a people born to liberty. That they retain the capacity for self-government. That, addressed as free-born, autonomous men and women of God-given dignity, they will rise yet again to drive back a mortal enemy.

- Mitch Daniels

There's a loss of autonomy that comes from not being able to own the wealth you've earned.

- Monica Johnson

Practicing in the trial work trenches of the law, I saw, too, that when we judges don our robes, it doesn't make us any smarter, but it does serve as a reminder of what's expected of us: Impartiality and independence, collegiality and courage.

- Neil Gorsuch

Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent.

- Nicolas Chamfort

I wasn't good with authority, went to lots of schools, didn't like the fact that there was no autonomy.

- Nigella Lawson

In 1949, China declared independence - an event known in Western discourse as 'the loss of China' in the U.S. - with bitter recriminations and conflict over who was responsible for that loss.

- Noam Chomsky

The beliefs expressed in the Declaration of Independence remain a standard for our nation today. They also remain a standard for those nations across the globe striving to achieve democracy.

- Paul Gillmor

Our founders got it right when they wrote in the Declaration of Independence that our rights come from nature and nature's God, not from government.

- Paul Ryan

There's no such thing as an independent person.

- Peter Jennings

Scotland is the only case in the world where the poor part of a territory wants to separate from the rich part. If independence came, one option is to keep the pound as its currency, so that all economic decisions will continue to be taken by the Bank of England.

- Philip Kerr

In Cuba, taking into account the long fight for our independence and sovereignty, we will defend the one-party system in the face of the games, demagogy and the marketing of politics.

- Raul Castro

When I was four, my mother insisted I get out of the car and find my own way home. Although I got lost, I did find my way home. It taught me the value of independence at an early age.

- Richard Branson

George was getting alot of independence for himself in those days. He was writing more, and wanted things to go his way - where, when we first started things basically went John and Paul's way. You know, 'cuz they were the writers.

- Ringo Starr

Stand-up is my favorite thing I've ever done. There's so much independence.

- Rita Rudner

We do need a return to individual integrity, self-reliance, and old-fashioned gumption. We really do.

- Robert M. Pirsig

The way you delegate is that first you have to hire people that you really have confidence in. You won't truly let those people feel a sense of autonomy if you don't have confidence in them.

- Robert Pozen

Western environmentalists might value their independence, but their organizations are largely donor driven, and if he wanted to, Putin could have a lot to donate.

- Robert Zubrin

I reject the idea that when young women make choices with which we disagree, they are acting without autonomy.

- Roxane Gay

Self-reliance - that's a dirty word to Democrats. They want people to believe that self-reliance means you don't do anything with anybody. They don't want it thought of as accepting responsibility for one's life. Enterprise. Imagination. Independence. Entrepreneurism.

- Rush Limbaugh

The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.

- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.

- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

It matters enormously to a successful democratic society like ours that we have three branches of government, each with some independence and some control over the other two. That's set out in the Constitution.

- Sandra Day O'Connor

The Kosovars were granted autonomy at the end of World War II, but then aspiring president Milosevic had the autonomy revoked in 1989, and the Dayton Accords of 1995, which ended the recent war in Bosnia and Croatia, failed to address the issue of Kosovo's status.

- Sebastian Junger

The truth is that since childhood I had cultivated an existential independence. It came from perceiving the adults around me as unreliable, and without it I felt I wouldn't have survived. I cared deeply for everyone in my family, but in the end I depended on myself.

- Sonia Sotomayor

Independence means you decide according to the law and the facts.

- Stephen Breyer

Independence doesn't mean you decide the way you want.

- Stephen Breyer

Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.

- Stephen Covey

Long-term, we must begin to build our internal strengths. It isn't just skills like computer technology. It's the old-fashioned basics of self-reliance, self-motivation, self-reinforcement, self-discipline, self-command.

- Steven Pressfield

Google teams have lots of autonomy, including from people like me.

- Sundar Pichai

I think the girl who is able to earn her own living and pay her own way should be as happy as anybody on earth. The sense of independence and security is very sweet.

- Susan B. Anthony

Independence is happiness.

- Susan B. Anthony

It's great that with the Internet, there has come this sense of creative independence.

- Tavi Gevinson

We face a conflict between civilisation and culture, which used to be on the same side. Civilisation means rational reflection, material wellbeing, individual autonomy and ironic self-doubt; culture means a form of life that is customary, collective, passionate, spontaneous, unreflective and irrational.

- Terry Eagleton

The good man is he who rules himself as he does his own property: his autonomous being is modelled on material power.

- Theodor Adorno

Architecture is involved with the world, but at the same time it has a certain autonomy. This autonomy cannot be explained in terms of traditional logic because the most interesting parts of the work are non-verbal. They operate within the terms of the work, like any art.

- Thom Mayne

I think there's great potential for autonomy, but we have to remember that we live in a world where people may have free will but have not invented their circumstances.

- Thomas Frank

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity.

- Thomas J. Watson

If Uber wants to catch up to Google and be the leader in autonomy, we have to have the best minds. We have to have all the great minds.

- Travis Kalanick

Robert Treat Paine was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

- Treat Williams

My government has promised to comprehensively respect the independence of the judiciary.

- Victor Ponta

The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life is only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness.

- Virginia Woolf

Injustice in the end produces independence.

- Voltaire

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.

- W. Somerset Maugham

Mickey Mouse is, to me, a symbol of independence. He was a means to an end.

- Walt Disney

I cannot compromise or inhibit my independence.

- Walter Annenberg

A 2001 survey of business owners with MBAs conducted by the Rochester Institute of Technology found that money was the primary motivator for only 29% of women, versus 76% of men. Women prioritized flexibility, fulfillment, autonomy and safety.

- Warren Farrell

People who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.

- Wayne Dyer

It is not the greatness of a man's means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.

- William Cobbett

There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance.

- William F. Buckley, Jr.

Spending only what the country can afford, rewarding savings, encouraging independence, supporting marriage: people know that these things are common sense.

- William Hague

Work is about more than making a living, as vital as that is. It's fundamental to human dignity, to our sense of self-worth as useful, independent, free people.

- William J. Clinton

You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.

- William J. H. Boetcker

You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.

- William J. H. Boetcker

Many a revolution started with the actions of a few. Only 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. A few hanging together can lead a nation to change.

- Wynton Marsalis