I am lord of myself, accountable to none.
I equally dislike the favor of the public with the love of a woman — they are both a cloying treacle to the wings of independence.
In the word of no master am I bound to believe.
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.
It's 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.
Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent.
No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person.
Our treatment of both older people and children reflects the value we place on independence and autonomy. We do our best to make our children independent from birth. We leave them all alone in rooms with the lights out and tell them, ''Go to sleep by yourselves.'' And the old people we respect most are the ones who will fight for their independence, who would sooner starve to death than ask for help.
So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.
The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves.
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off.
The price for independence is often isolation and solitude.
Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.