{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence", "heading": "Quotes about independence", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence.md", "quotes_count": 95, "authors_count": 67, "parent": { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom", "heading": "Quotes about freedom" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "beaa4539-7e9e-474a-bdb4-14fbca02c775", "slug": "live-with-your", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/friedrich-schiller/on-the-aesthetic-education-of-man/live-with-your", "text": "Live with your century; but do not be its creature. Work for your contemporaries; but create what they need, not what they praise.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Friedrich Schiller", "slug": "friedrich-schiller", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/friedrich-schiller" }, "book": { "title": "On the Aesthetic Education of Man", "slug": "on-the-aesthetic-education-of-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/friedrich-schiller/on-the-aesthetic-education-of-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Schiller#On_the_Aesthetic_Education_of_Man_(1794)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:36" }, { "id": "bc91921e-b71e-45a7-9d61-a219be7131ff", "slug": "it-is-too", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/confessions/it-is-too", "text": "It is too difficult to think nobly, when one thinks only in order to live. In order to be able and to venture to utter great truths, one must not be dependent upon success. I threw my books amongst the public with the sure consciousness of having spoken for the general good, without caring for anything else. If the work was rejected, so much the worse for those who refused to profit by it. As for myself, I did not need their approval in order to live; my profession would support me, if my books did not sell; and it was just this which made them sell.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Confessions", "slug": "confessions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/confessions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Confessions_(Rousseau)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:02:03" }, { "id": "402b2b48-962f-4499-bd5f-35f0a5155037", "slug": "here-must-thou", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude/here-must-thou", "text": "Here must thou be, O Man! Power to thyself; no Helper hast thou here; Here keepest thou in singleness thy state: No other can divide with thee this work: No secondary hand can intervene To fashion this ability; 'tis thine, The prime and vital principle is thine In the recesses of thy nature, far From any reach of outward fellowship, Else is not thine at all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Wordsworth", "slug": "william-wordsworth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth" }, "book": { "title": "The Prelude", "slug": "the-prelude", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Prelude#Book_XIV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:54" }, { "id": "1ac3292b-41be-4b92-885c-1a657a2ad5bb", "slug": "always-listen-to-yourself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bryce-courtenay/the-power-of-one/always-listen-to-yourself", "text": "Always listen to yourself... It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bryce Courtenay", "slug": "bryce-courtenay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bryce-courtenay" }, "book": { "title": "The Power of One", "slug": "the-power-of-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bryce-courtenay/the-power-of-one" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bryce_Courtenay#The_Power_of_One_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:20" }, { "id": "037e0553-e316-4a9c-99a4-5d1c2b43226f", "slug": "i-am-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-novik/spinning-silver/i-am-not", "text": "I am not your subject or your servant, and if you want a cowering mouse for a wife, go find someone else who can turn silver to gold for you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Naomi Novik", "slug": "naomi-novik", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-novik" }, "book": { "title": "Spinning Silver", "slug": "spinning-silver", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-novik/spinning-silver" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "dignity", "slug": "dignity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dignity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Naomi_Novik#Spinning_Silver_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:05" }, { "id": "d14f59e3-d52a-4c2b-94d8-1b981813c38f", "slug": "character-never-joins", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anna-kuliscioff/the-monopoly-of-man/character-never-joins", "text": "Character never joins forces with servility. And, indeed, men and women-especially the latter-who have an independent character are often regarded as rebellious, unsettled and troubled people, a danger to society.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anna Kuliscioff", "slug": "anna-kuliscioff", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anna-kuliscioff" }, "book": { "title": "The Monopoly of Man", "slug": "the-monopoly-of-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anna-kuliscioff/the-monopoly-of-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "character", "slug": "character", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anna_Kuliscioff#The_Monopoly_of_Man_(1894)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:59" }, { "id": "0d0a93c4-3648-420a-8f92-d396bb5e28ab", "slug": "this-is-certain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edna-ferber/a-peculiar-treasure/this-is-certain", "text": "This is certain: I never have written a line except to please myself. I never have written with an eye to what is called the public or the market or the trend or the editor or the reviewer. Good or bad, popular or unpopular, lasting or ephemeral, the words I have put down on paper were the best words I could summon at the time to express the thing I wanted more than anything else to say.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edna Ferber", "slug": "edna-ferber", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edna-ferber" }, "book": { "title": "A Peculiar Treasure", "slug": "a-peculiar-treasure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edna-ferber/a-peculiar-treasure" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edna_Ferber#A_Peculiar_Treasure_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:52" }, { "id": "93cffc1d-8c66-4e7f-8298-e086df880ef4", "slug": "stop-expecting-other", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cressida-cowell/how-to-train-your-dragon/stop-expecting-other", "text": "Stop expecting other people to save you. YOU are the Hero. Save yourself. (If you want another answer, try another woman.) Your loving mother, Valhallarama", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cressida Cowell", "slug": "cressida-cowell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cressida-cowell" }, "book": { "title": "How to Train Your Dragon", "slug": "how-to-train-your-dragon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cressida-cowell/how-to-train-your-dragon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/How_to_Train_Your_Dragon_(novel_series)#How_to_Fight_a_Dragon's_Fury_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:28" }, { "id": "d26be2b8-a78c-4c52-b70d-eda2885013e2", "slug": "i-had-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/i-had-only", "text": "I had only a splinter of awareness back then that no matter what anybody says, choosing between the available options is not the same as thinking for yourself. The only true way of thinking for yourself is to create options of your own, options that don't exist.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Toltz", "slug": "steve-toltz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz" }, "book": { "title": "A Fraction Of The Whole", "slug": "a-fraction-of-the-whole", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Toltz#One", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:10" }, { "id": "3ba31819-6e54-4d8c-a194-69d431fbd6af", "slug": "he-was-a-quick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/reamde/he-was-a-quick", "text": "He was a quick study. An autodidact. Anything that was technical, that was logical, that ran according to rules, Peter could figure out. And knew it. Didn’t bother to ask for help. So much quicker to work it out on his own than suffer through someone’s well-meaning efforts to educate him — and to forge an emotional connection with him in so doing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neal Stephenson", "slug": "neal-stephenson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson" }, "book": { "title": "Reamde", "slug": "reamde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/reamde" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Reamde#Thanksgiving", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:45" }, { "id": "b15eab47-9536-4457-9f3a-cc762908746a", "slug": "be-a-light", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-kabat-zinn/wherever-you-go-there-you-are/be-a-light", "text": "Be a light unto yourself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jon Kabat-Zinn", "slug": "jon-kabat-zinn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-kabat-zinn" }, "book": { "title": "Wherever You Go, There You Are", "slug": "wherever-you-go-there-you-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-kabat-zinn/wherever-you-go-there-you-are" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jon_Kabat-Zinn#Wherever_You_Go,_There_You_Are:_Mindfulness_Meditation_in_Everyday_Life_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:40" }, { "id": "05a3e9f6-e315-4227-b65d-44773cdce6aa", "slug": "the-thing-is-to-play", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/plan-for-chaos/the-thing-is-to-play", "text": "\"The thing is to play your own game - not let the other feller force you to what he wants.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "Plan for Chaos", "slug": "plan-for-chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/plan-for-chaos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 71, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#Plan_for_Chaos_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:06" }, { "id": "ce012be2-a953-45ba-96c9-74f71788e846", "slug": "somehow-i-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/laila-lalami/the-moors-account/somehow-i-had", "text": "Somehow I had also convinced myself that my redemption could only come from some force outside of me-that if I were useful to others, they would save me. What a terrible thing to believe. I had to stop playing a part in my own misery. I had to save my own life. (p129)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Laila Lalami", "slug": "laila-lalami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/laila-lalami" }, "book": { "title": "The Moor's Account", "slug": "the-moors-account", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/laila-lalami/the-moors-account" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Laila_Lalami#The_Moor's_Account_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:56" }, { "id": "3c863468-4e5c-44ee-bca2-5f548b2466e2", "slug": "no-husband-of-mine", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/the-woman-warrior/no-husband-of-mine", "text": "No husband of mine will say, \"I could have been a drummer, but I had to think about the wife and kids. You know how it is.\" Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure. (p48)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Maxine Hong Kingston", "slug": "maxine-hong-kingston", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston" }, "book": { "title": "The Woman Warrior", "slug": "the-woman-warrior", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/the-woman-warrior" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maxine_Hong_Kingston#%22White_Tigers%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:47" }, { "id": "e68b5139-aae2-4a39-932a-b33293b2c8bd", "slug": "to-admit-uncertainty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated/to-admit-uncertainty", "text": "To admit uncertainty is to admit to weakness, to powerlessness, and to believe in yourself despite both. It is a frailty, but in this frailty there is a strength: the conviction to live in your own mind, and not in someone else’s.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tara Westover", "slug": "tara-westover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover" }, "book": { "title": "Educated", "slug": "educated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 197, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "strength", "slug": "strength", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/strength" }, { "name": "uncertainty", "slug": "uncertainty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/uncertainty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tara_Westover#Educated_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:37" }, { "id": "46f4854d-01cb-4ed3-9cf5-fad5af935fc6", "slug": "everything-i-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated/everything-i-had", "text": "Everything I had worked for, all my years of study, had been to purchase for myself this one privilege: to see and experience more truths than those given to me by my father, and to use those truths to construct my own mind. I had come to believe that the ability to evaluate many ideas, many histories, many points of view, was at the heart of what it means to self-create. If I yielded now, I would lose more than an argument. I would lose custody of my own mind. This was the price I was being asked to pay, I understood that now. What my father wanted to cast from me wasn’t a demon: it was me.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tara Westover", "slug": "tara-westover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover" }, "book": { "title": "Educated", "slug": "educated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 304, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tara_Westover#Educated_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:37" }, { "id": "4338e870-85cb-4de2-be82-f8ce57497ce4", "slug": "my-life-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated/my-life-was", "text": "My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tara Westover", "slug": "tara-westover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover" }, "book": { "title": "Educated", "slug": "educated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 197, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tara_Westover#Educated_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:37" }, { "id": "d6405f90-eb39-4d22-8e0f-87dddc1b5ec9", "slug": "i-find-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-mind-pool/i-find-that", "text": "I find that prayers don’t work when you need them most. Unless you answer them for yourself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Sheffield", "slug": "charles-sheffield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield" }, "book": { "title": "The Mind Pool", "slug": "the-mind-pool", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-mind-pool" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 259, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "prayer", "slug": "prayer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prayer" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sheffield#The_Mind_Pool_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:34" }, { "id": "001e34c0-69b6-442d-891b-dc2970ee875d", "slug": "ive-never-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy/the-great-santini/ive-never-had", "text": "I've never had anybody's approval, so I've learned to live without it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pat Conroy", "slug": "pat-conroy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy" }, "book": { "title": "The Great Santini", "slug": "the-great-santini", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy/the-great-santini" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 240, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "public opinion", "slug": "public-opinion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/public-opinion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pat_Conroy#The_Great_Santini_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:33" }, { "id": "8f109568-fe96-434b-b0d8-44a916e9e742", "slug": "solitude-is-independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse/steppenwolf/solitude-is-independence", "text": "Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. It was cold.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hermann Hesse", "slug": "hermann-hesse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse" }, "book": { "title": "Steppenwolf", "slug": "steppenwolf", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse/steppenwolf" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 37, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steppenwolf#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:54" }, { "id": "aa7e9724-aa2e-4ead-bb0c-a71a8291776a", "slug": "i-am-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm/i-am-not", "text": "“I am not in so great a hurry to put my neck beneath any man's foot; and I do not so greatly admire the crying of babies”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Olive Schreiner", "slug": "olive-schreiner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner" }, "book": { "title": "The Story of an African Farm", "slug": "the-story-of-an-african-farm", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Olive_Schreiner#The_Story_of_an_African_Farm_(1883)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:50" }, { "id": "f7212d43-581f-4cad-837f-cb6cf8093647", "slug": "if-you-want", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vonda-n-mcintyre/dreamsnake/if-you-want", "text": "If you want to. That’s the important thing. For you to do what you want to do. Not what you think anyone else wants or expects you to do.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Vonda N. McIntyre", "slug": "vonda-n-mcintyre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vonda-n-mcintyre" }, "book": { "title": "Dreamsnake", "slug": "dreamsnake", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/vonda-n-mcintyre/dreamsnake" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 205, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vonda_N._McIntyre#Dreamsnake_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:25" }, { "id": "e101956c-b1fa-4055-979c-733c7527deb7", "slug": "i-said-everything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-best-of-me/i-said-everything", "text": "\"...I said everything that matters... Don't take my advice. Or anyone's advice. Trust yourself. For good or for bad, happy or unhappy, it's your life, and what you do with it has always been entirely up to you.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nicholas Sparks", "slug": "nicholas-sparks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks" }, "book": { "title": "The Best Of Me", "slug": "the-best-of-me", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-best-of-me" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 223, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sparks#The_Best_of_Me_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:25" }, { "id": "08ac7f12-e1b1-4a38-a561-35e9a7fbfc97", "slug": "everyone-has-to-do-something", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neamat-imam/the-black-coat/everyone-has-to-do-something", "text": "Everyone has to do something for survival, but that something does not have to define the real character of a person. I am what my head tells me I am. I am what my feelings say I am. I do not depend on anyone’s approval.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neamat Imam", "slug": "neamat-imam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neamat-imam" }, "book": { "title": "The Black Coat", "slug": "the-black-coat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neamat-imam/the-black-coat" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neamat_Imam#The_Black_Coat_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:16" }, { "id": "bca0f76f-75f9-41cc-b464-7cce96f330a1", "slug": "my-physics-teacher", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/bellwether/my-physics-teacher", "text": "“My physics teacher used to say Diogenes shouldn’t have wasted his time looking for an honest man,” Shirl said, “he should have been looking for somebody who thought for himself.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Connie Willis", "slug": "connie-willis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis" }, "book": { "title": "Bellwether", "slug": "bellwether", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/bellwether" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 127, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Connie_Willis#Bellwether_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:12" }, { "id": "b21554a4-3a70-467a-9a7f-ceb2f115ba80", "slug": "why-do-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/bellwether/why-do-only", "text": "Why do only the awful things become fads? I thought. Eye-rolling and Barbie and bread pudding. Why never chocolate cheesecake or thinking for yourself?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Connie Willis", "slug": "connie-willis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis" }, "book": { "title": "Bellwether", "slug": "bellwether", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/bellwether" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 119, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "fashion", "slug": "fashion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fashion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Connie_Willis#Bellwether_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:12" }, { "id": "54302d5d-74a6-4062-8a19-528087aba01a", "slug": "i-cant-keep", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nalo-hopkinson/brown-girl-in-the-ring/i-cant-keep", "text": "“I can’t keep giving my will into other people hands no more, ain’t? I have to decide what I want to do for myself.” No answer. It wasn’t going to tell her.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nalo Hopkinson", "slug": "nalo-hopkinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nalo-hopkinson" }, "book": { "title": "Brown Girl In The Ring", "slug": "brown-girl-in-the-ring", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nalo-hopkinson/brown-girl-in-the-ring" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 220, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "choices", "slug": "choices", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nalo_Hopkinson#Brown_Girl_in_the_Ring_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:40" }, { "id": "5035dbce-a441-445b-8669-2f23e869be79", "slug": "shes-probably-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-powers/the-stress-of-her-regard/shes-probably-only", "text": "She’s probably only now beginning to be able to think for herself, he thought. And she’ll be hating it. Will she acknowledge the responsibilities that she can now clearly see, or will they be so appalling that she’ll just want to return to the selfless haze?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tim Powers", "slug": "tim-powers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-powers" }, "book": { "title": "The Stress of Her Regard", "slug": "the-stress-of-her-regard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-powers/the-stress-of-her-regard" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 372, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Powers#The_Stress_of_Her_Regard_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:37" }, { "id": "d5d31f00-c70b-40ba-9a34-8b2a50d97cc4", "slug": "we-have-a-tendency", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-ferrazzi/never-eat-alone/we-have-a-tendency", "text": "We have a tendency to romanticize independence. Most business literature still views autonomy as a virtue, as though communication, teamwork, and cooperation were lesser values.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Keith Ferrazzi", "slug": "keith-ferrazzi", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-ferrazzi" }, "book": { "title": "Never Eat Alone", "slug": "never-eat-alone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-ferrazzi/never-eat-alone" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "cooperation", "slug": "cooperation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cooperation" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Keith_Ferrazzi#Never_Eat_Alone_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:41" }, { "id": "c3d6d3a9-899c-43b8-b8d3-68cd6f9d9442", "slug": "true-freedom-with-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/rhythm-of-war/true-freedom-with-the", "text": "True freedom—with the power to make certain she didn’t ever have to be dependent upon anyone else, listener or spren. True freedom couldn’t exist while someone else had power over you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brandon Sanderson", "slug": "brandon-sanderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson" }, "book": { "title": "Rhythm of War", "slug": "rhythm-of-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/rhythm-of-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 958, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#Rhythm_of_War_(2020)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:40" }, { "id": "c0636701-b0f3-4237-b4dc-9309f486124a", "slug": "the-foundation-of-democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-h-tawney/religion-and-the-rise-of-capitalism/the-foundation-of-democracy", "text": "The foundation of democracy is the sense of spiritual independence which nerves the individual to stand alone against the powers of this world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "R. H. Tawney", "slug": "r-h-tawney", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-h-tawney" }, "book": { "title": "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism", "slug": "religion-and-the-rise-of-capitalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-h-tawney/religion-and-the-rise-of-capitalism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "democracy", "slug": "democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/R._H._Tawney#Religion_and_the_Rise_of_Capitalism_(1926)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:49" }, { "id": "7a64aa1b-a1fe-4f23-b5d9-9772cc14557a", "slug": "she-had-resolved", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin/the-awakening/she-had-resolved", "text": "She had resolved never again to belong to another than herself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kate Chopin", "slug": "kate-chopin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin" }, "book": { "title": "The Awakening", "slug": "the-awakening", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin/the-awakening" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin#The_Awakening_(1899)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:47" }, { "id": "971f76b7-026c-4919-8185-48809c1eaac1", "slug": "now-is-it-their", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/a-fine-and-private-place/now-is-it-their", "text": "Now is it their friendship I want, he wondered, or their dependency?…Am I so tired and so purposeless that I want to keep them with me forever, living off their need and their loneliness? You can’t do that, Jonathan. They are minds, and you cannot make minds dependent on you. That would surely make you the devil.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Peter S. Beagle", "slug": "peter-s-beagle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle" }, "book": { "title": "A Fine and Private Place", "slug": "a-fine-and-private-place", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/a-fine-and-private-place" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 153, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "friendship", "slug": "friendship", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_S._Beagle#A_Fine_and_Private_Place_(1960)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:31" }, { "id": "020b351e-73ca-47d6-bda0-f443ad8f45cd", "slug": "the-word-service", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/the-word-service", "text": "The word 'service' comes from serving, and serving means being dependent.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:29" }, { "id": "4457d63e-45bb-460b-aedc-899f8305ea48", "slug": "women-have-come", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anita-brookner/a-friend-from-england/women-have-come", "text": "\"Women have come a long way, of course: we can all be left alone at night now. But sometimes it seems a high price to pay. We can also open the door cheerfully to strangers at any hour, deal with obscene telephone calls and mend fuses.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anita Brookner", "slug": "anita-brookner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anita-brookner" }, "book": { "title": "A Friend from England", "slug": "a-friend-from-england", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anita-brookner/a-friend-from-england" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anita_Brookner#A_Friend_From_England_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:59" }, { "id": "3ac9a0c3-d31f-42f3-9405-6d41511e812f", "slug": "if-we-value", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-rogers/on-becoming-a-person/if-we-value", "text": "If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Rogers", "slug": "carl-rogers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-rogers" }, "book": { "title": "On Becoming a Person", "slug": "on-becoming-a-person", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-rogers/on-becoming-a-person" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers#On_Becoming_a_Person_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:35" }, { "id": "b2f43541-c949-44dd-9182-87ac774ae941", "slug": "i-would-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall/i-would-not", "text": "I would not send a poor girl into the world, ignorant of the snares that beset her path; nor would I watch and guard her, till, deprived of self-respect and self-reliance, she lost the power or the will to watch and guard herself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anne Brontë", "slug": "anne-bronte", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte" }, "book": { "title": "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", "slug": "the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "upbringing", "slug": "upbringing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Bront%C3%AB#The_Tenant_of_Wildfell_Hall_(1848)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:27" }, { "id": "3e29cec0-09d0-489e-9c59-efe490761e64", "slug": "if-you-would", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall/if-you-would", "text": "If you would have your son to walk honourably through the world, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path, but teach him to walk firmly over them — not insist upon leading him by the hand, but let him learn to go alone.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anne Brontë", "slug": "anne-bronte", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte" }, "book": { "title": "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", "slug": "the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "upbringing", "slug": "upbringing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Bront%C3%AB#The_Tenant_of_Wildfell_Hall_(1848)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:27" }, { "id": "ae17fa34-b7c0-4f67-85a0-47851331d846", "slug": "the-man-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice/the-man-that", "text": "The man that does not know himself not to be at the mercy of other men, that does not feel that he is invulnerable to all the vicissitudes of fortune, is incapable of a constant and inflexible virtue.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Godwin", "slug": "william-godwin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin" }, "book": { "title": "Enquiry Concerning Political Justice", "slug": "enquiry-concerning-political-justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Godwin#Enquiry_Concerning_Political_Justice_(1793)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:09" }, { "id": "82c84651-d133-4bf2-96f5-6ac54748b0ed", "slug": "no-man-must", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice/no-man-must", "text": "No man must encroach upon my province nor I upon his. He may advise me, moderately and without perniciousness, but he must not expect to dictate to me. He may censure me freely and without reserve but he should remember that I am to act by my deliberation and not his. He may exercise a republican boldness in judging, but he must not be peremptory and imperious in prescribing. Force may never be resorted to but, in the most extraordinary and imperious emergency.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Godwin", "slug": "william-godwin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin" }, "book": { "title": "Enquiry Concerning Political Justice", "slug": "enquiry-concerning-political-justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Godwin#Enquiry_Concerning_Political_Justice_(1793)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:09" }, { "id": "833c40d0-6699-4020-afa1-2256dca6d307", "slug": "the-pleasures-of-self-approbation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice/the-pleasures-of-self-approbation", "text": "The pleasures of self-approbation, together with the right cultivation of all our pleasures, require individual independence. Without independence men cannot become either wise, or useful, or happy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Godwin", "slug": "william-godwin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin" }, "book": { "title": "Enquiry Concerning Political Justice", "slug": "enquiry-concerning-political-justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-godwin/enquiry-concerning-political-justice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Godwin#Enquiry_Concerning_Political_Justice_(1793)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:08" }, { "id": "4bc7b258-c15e-4285-be6d-aace6a57c90d", "slug": "you-can-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/u-g-krishnamurti/the-courage-to-stand-alone/you-can-have", "text": "You can have the courage to climb the mountain, swim the lakes, go on a raft to the other side of the Atlantic or Pacific. That any fool can do, but the courage to be on your own, to stand on your two solid feet, is something which cannot be given by somebody. You cannot free yourself of that burden by trying to develop that courage. If you are freed from the entire burden of the entire past of mankind, then what is left there is the courage.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "U. G. Krishnamurti", "slug": "u-g-krishnamurti", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/u-g-krishnamurti" }, "book": { "title": "The Courage to Stand Alone", "slug": "the-courage-to-stand-alone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/u-g-krishnamurti/the-courage-to-stand-alone" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/U._G._Krishnamurti#The_Courage_to_Stand_Alone_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:13" }, { "id": "5384fc4b-a001-4001-a1fd-c7c5922e872c", "slug": "it-is-easier", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-friedan/the-feminine-mystique/it-is-easier", "text": "It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Betty Friedan", "slug": "betty-friedan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-friedan" }, "book": { "title": "The Feminine Mystique", "slug": "the-feminine-mystique", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-friedan/the-feminine-mystique" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 338, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "personal growth", "slug": "personal-growth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/personal-growth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Betty_Friedan#The_Feminine_Mystique_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:54" }, { "id": "7bd53db3-c106-48c6-afe6-807949e53a32", "slug": "what-has-value", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/all-men-are-mortal/what-has-value", "text": "What has value in their eyes is never what is done for them; it's what they do for themselves.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Simone de Beauvoir", "slug": "simone-de-beauvoir", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir" }, "book": { "title": "All Men Are Mortal", "slug": "all-men-are-mortal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/all-men-are-mortal" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 315, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "taking action", "slug": "taking-action", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/taking-action" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir#All_Men_are_Mortal_(1946)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:51" }, { "id": "a1facb94-51be-4738-97ad-69631b94ab30", "slug": "i-am-no-bird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charlotte-bronte/jane-eyre/i-am-no-bird", "text": "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charlotte Brontë", "slug": "charlotte-bronte", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charlotte-bronte" }, "book": { "title": "Jane Eyre", "slug": "jane-eyre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charlotte-bronte/jane-eyre" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB#Jane_Eyre_(1847)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:41" }, { "id": "d1b7d5d4-0f54-4669-b500-b9db42487f5b", "slug": "a-lot-of-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece/a-lot-of-people", "text": "\"A lot of people never use their initiative because nobody told them to.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Banksy", "slug": "banksy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy" }, "book": { "title": "Wall and Piece", "slug": "wall-and-piece", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "obedience", "slug": "obedience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/obedience" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Banksy#Wall_and_Piece_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:11" }, { "id": "6811dbc4-3c67-4bfc-93f6-8f9838028814", "slug": "every-fat-must", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-bunyan/the-pilgrims-progress/every-fat-must", "text": "Every fat must stand upon its own bottom.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Bunyan", "slug": "john-bunyan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-bunyan" }, "book": { "title": "The Pilgrim's Progress", "slug": "the-pilgrims-progress", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-bunyan/the-pilgrims-progress" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Bunyan#Part_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:05" }, { "id": "c95ba386-9757-47df-8ace-f43acbfe8fe1", "slug": "yes-i-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/yes-i-know", "text": "Yes, I know I haven’t told you anything. No offense, Sis, but you like running people’s lives so much, you don’t like it when they try and run their own.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "American Empire: Blood and Iron", "slug": "american-empire-blood-and-iron", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 97, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "family", "slug": "family", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#American_Empire:_The_Center_Cannot_Hold_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:50" }, { "id": "324cdb4f-36d7-4f97-8f76-2383b7dd0c2f", "slug": "i-want-to-be-something", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/our-mutual-friend/i-want-to-be-something", "text": "I want to be something so much worthier than the doll in the doll's house.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Our Mutual Friend", "slug": "our-mutual-friend", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/our-mutual-friend" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "dignity", "slug": "dignity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dignity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens#Our_Mutual_Friend_(1864-1865)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:43" }, { "id": "dd5992de-a8a6-4711-b302-886694528084", "slug": "think-for-yourself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy/think-for-yourself", "text": "THINK FOR YOURSELF, SCHMUCK!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Shea", "slug": "robert-shea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea" }, "book": { "title": "The Illuminatus! Trilogy", "slug": "the-illuminatus-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy#Book_One:_Verwirrung", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:33" }, { "id": "ad218541-dda5-4867-bcb0-b276e9d80339", "slug": "they-were-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor/they-were-always", "text": "“They were always telling me their way is the only way to go!” “Oh, no, my dear. No, not at all. So long as it harms no one else, one’s own way is always preferable.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Visitor", "slug": "the-visitor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 59, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "tolerance", "slug": "tolerance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tolerance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Visitor_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:27" }, { "id": "9ff12587-459e-4beb-a1d9-643a39b397c7", "slug": "there-is-a-class", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/there-is-a-class", "text": "There is a class of person who cannot lead and will not be led. Such persons go their own way, uncorrupted by insight, unmitigated by experience. They do what they do, and usually they die of it, but they would rather die than cooperate with anyone else.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Six Moon Dance", "slug": "six-moon-dance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 418, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "stubbornness", "slug": "stubbornness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stubbornness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Six_Moon_Dance_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:25" }, { "id": "5ac59f3b-3087-4749-9070-45d685796b87", "slug": "even-when-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones/even-when-people", "text": "Even when people are well-meaning, do not let them fool with your heads.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Raising The Stones", "slug": "raising-the-stones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 155, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "manipulation", "slug": "manipulation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Raising_the_Stones_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:22" }, { "id": "beb8871f-3363-4dce-bb00-559bab7d5be4", "slug": "a-tree-cannot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/a-tree-cannot", "text": "A tree Cannot grow In its parents’ shadows.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Parable of the Sower", "slug": "parable-of-the-sower", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 82, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "parents", "slug": "parents", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "growing up", "slug": "growing-up", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Sower_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:10" }, { "id": "dc249089-c0a2-42e6-8f12-b5a0e31d6547", "slug": "she-decided-she", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy/the-group/she-decided-she", "text": "She decided she wanted a cool, starchy independent life, with ruffles of humor like window curtains.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary McCarthy", "slug": "mary-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "The Group", "slug": "the-group", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy/the-group" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_McCarthy#The_Group_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:57" }, { "id": "6a0d20e3-df70-42c2-a1a5-0511985af22d", "slug": "y-ou-have-to-live", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy/the-group/y-ou-have-to-live", "text": "[Y]ou have to live without love, learn not to need it, in order to live with it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary McCarthy", "slug": "mary-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "The Group", "slug": "the-group", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy/the-group" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_McCarthy#The_Group_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:57" }, { "id": "2badf4d4-b746-4417-bcc4-2df325d2640b", "slug": "you-know-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy/the-company-she-keeps/you-know-what", "text": "You know what my favourite quotation is? […] It’s from Chaucer […] Criseyde says it, \"I am myne owene woman, wel at ese.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary McCarthy", "slug": "mary-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "The Company She Keeps", "slug": "the-company-she-keeps", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy/the-company-she-keeps" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 70, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_McCarthy#The_Company_She_Keeps_(1942)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:57" }, { "id": "26ade02b-8542-4a48-849c-31b31c2dd2b5", "slug": "the-spontaneous-reproduction", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/the-spontaneous-reproduction", "text": "The spontaneous reproduction of superimposed needs by the individual does not establish autonomy; it only testifies to the efficacy of the control.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 8, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "manipulation", "slug": "manipulation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:38" }, { "id": "c80ae6a3-b234-42ce-a32e-57ed345e282c", "slug": "let-us-picture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maria-montessori/montessori-method/let-us-picture", "text": "Let us picture to ourselves a clever and proficient workman, capable, not only of producing much and perfect work, but of giving advice in his workshop, because of his ability to control and direct the general activity of the environment in which he works. The man who is thus master of his environment will be able to smile before the anger of others, showing that great mastery of himself which comes from consciousness of his ability to do things. We should not, however, be in the least surprised to know that in his home this capable workman scolded his wife if the soup was not to his taste, or not ready at the appointed time. In his home, he is no longer the capable workman; the skilled workman here is the wife, who serves him and prepares his food for him. He is a serene and pleasant man where he is powerful through being efficient, but is domineering where he is served. Perhaps if he should learn how to prepare his soup he might become a perfect man! The man who, through his own efforts, is able to perform all the actions necessary for his comfort and development in life, conquers himself, and in doing so multiplies his abilities and perfects himself as an individual. We must make of the future generation, powerful men, and by that we mean men who are independent and free.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Maria Montessori", "slug": "maria-montessori", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maria-montessori" }, "book": { "title": "Montessori Method", "slug": "montessori-method", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maria-montessori/montessori-method" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 100, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori#The_Montessori_Method_(1912)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:30" }, { "id": "ab020f46-a94f-456b-b8a1-efb5bb975ec9", "slug": "the-basic-need", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/the-basic-need", "text": "\"The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive. To a creator, all relations with men are secondary.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 738, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "reason", "slug": "reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:10" }, { "id": "a9c1f827-aa2d-4f86-8348-3180571cf348", "slug": "i-came-here", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/i-came-here", "text": "\"I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 743, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "individualism", "slug": "individualism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/individualism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:10" }, { "id": "a5cd318d-5cea-47bb-babf-4a1ac1899c28", "slug": "no-man-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/no-man-can", "text": "\"No man can live for another. He cannot share his spirit just as he cannot share his body. But the second-hander has used altruism as a weapon of exploitation and reversed the base of mankind's moral principles. Men have been taught every precept that destroys the creator. Men have been taught dependence as a virtue.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 738, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "altruism", "slug": "altruism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/altruism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:10" }, { "id": "49573882-2496-467d-9fbb-2abef44462eb", "slug": "independence-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/independence-is-the", "text": "\"Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 740, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "dignity", "slug": "dignity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dignity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:10" }, { "id": "f41c26a7-68b8-41fc-ad0d-223ac989f398", "slug": "how-do-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/how-do-you", "text": "\"How do you always manage to decide?\" \"How can you let others decide for you?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 28, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "choices", "slug": "choices", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_I_(_Peter_Keating_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:08" }, { "id": "a79a8c56-681c-481b-a414-9b6c50fe1089", "slug": "if-you-want", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/if-you-want", "text": "\"If you want my advice, Peter, you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 28, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "advice", "slug": "advice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/advice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_I_(_Peter_Keating_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:08" }, { "id": "d82b03d4-de63-42fd-9ed2-44787c9c7ecd", "slug": "everybody-likes-to-go-their", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/mansfield-park/everybody-likes-to-go-their", "text": "Everybody likes to go their own way— to choose their own time and manner of devotion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Austen", "slug": "jane-austen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen" }, "book": { "title": "Mansfield Park", "slug": "mansfield-park", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/mansfield-park" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mansfield_Park_(novel)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:53" }, { "id": "f74b61f6-511b-491d-9d32-7f55ccfdf5c1", "slug": "cult-of-aloneness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/generation-x/cult-of-aloneness", "text": "cult of aloneness - the need for autonomy at all costs, usually at the expense of long-term relationships. Often brought about by overly high expectations of others. (page 69)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Coupland", "slug": "douglas-coupland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland" }, "book": { "title": "Generation X", "slug": "generation-x", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/generation-x" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Generation_X:_Tales_for_an_Accelerated_Culture#C", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:50" }, { "id": "b29b54e3-7700-41e0-95e3-4df84798cb04", "slug": "which-is-better", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-asutra/which-is-better", "text": "Which is better: cheap submission or expensive independence?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "The Asutra", "slug": "the-asutra", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-asutra" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 195, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#The_Asutra_(1974%3B_serialized_1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:01" }, { "id": "51fb0c76-5356-4b0b-840c-f51ad798d1c9", "slug": "i-know-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-asutra/i-know-now", "text": "I know now what I should have known every moment of my life; that unless you help yourself, you die a slave. The fact is basic.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "The Asutra", "slug": "the-asutra", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-asutra" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 181, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#The_Asutra_(1974%3B_serialized_1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:01" }, { "id": "0b2469bd-9efd-486c-b4cf-5d8705e12408", "slug": "it-may-surprise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/it-may-surprise", "text": "It may surprise you to learn that I take a certain pride, no matter how foolishly mistaken that pride may be, in making my own decisions for my own reasons.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "The Sirens of Titan", "slug": "the-sirens-of-titan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 285, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "choices", "slug": "choices", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "pride", "slug": "pride-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride-2" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#The_Sirens_of_Titan_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "b8bf5c9b-57c8-4f77-8ca9-ca905ef71686", "slug": "a-traders-mental", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/a-traders-mental", "text": "A trader's mental construction should direct him to do precisely what other people do not do.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:30" }, { "id": "ce3004b3-0410-483e-af7d-8920dedcff5e", "slug": "i-am-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling/just-so-stories/i-am-the", "text": "I am the cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rudyard Kipling", "slug": "rudyard-kipling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling" }, "book": { "title": "Just So Stories", "slug": "just-so-stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling/just-so-stories" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "cats", "slug": "cats", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cats" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling#Just_So_Stories_(1902)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:27" }, { "id": "cc21ebe6-d3fb-48ef-9a5a-74e73dd965ec", "slug": "dont-mind-anything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-portrait-of-a-lady/dont-mind-anything", "text": "Don't mind anything anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henry James", "slug": "henry-james", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james" }, "book": { "title": "The Portrait of a Lady", "slug": "the-portrait-of-a-lady", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-portrait-of-a-lady" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "gossip", "slug": "gossip", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gossip" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_James#The_Portrait_of_a_Lady_(1881)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:23" }, { "id": "8490710a-3002-4dbf-a710-c66f37b7de15", "slug": "besides-i-try", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-portrait-of-a-lady/besides-i-try", "text": "Besides, I try to judge things for myself; to judge wrong, I think, is more honourable than not to judge at all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henry James", "slug": "henry-james", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james" }, "book": { "title": "The Portrait of a Lady", "slug": "the-portrait-of-a-lady", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-portrait-of-a-lady" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "choices", "slug": "choices", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_James#The_Portrait_of_a_Lady_(1881)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:23" }, { "id": "d093db02-0c6a-4692-8a8a-db80aa928234", "slug": "men-are-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/my-antonia/men-are-all", "text": "Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn into cranky old fathers, even the wild ones. They begin to tell you what's sensible and what's foolish, and want you to stick at home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I feel like it, and be accountable to nobody.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Willa Cather", "slug": "willa-cather", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather" }, "book": { "title": "My Antonia", "slug": "my-antonia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/my-antonia" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "marriage", "slug": "marriage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/marriage" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willa_Cather#My_Antonia_(1918)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:03" }, { "id": "c8c3870b-e058-4a3c-aa41-4e64d9fd10ad", "slug": "i-need-no-warrant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/anthem/i-need-no-warrant", "text": "I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "Anthem", "slug": "anthem", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/anthem" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#Anthem_(1937)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:51" }, { "id": "9805a3f9-991c-4896-be90-3abb34c8bc63", "slug": "neither-am-i-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/anthem/neither-am-i-the", "text": "Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds, I am not a sacrifice on their altars.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "Anthem", "slug": "anthem", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/anthem" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "individualism", "slug": "individualism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/individualism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#Anthem_(1937)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:51" }, { "id": "be758c44-ac2b-4e49-955d-77e846da397b", "slug": "we-are-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world/we-are-not", "text": "\"We are not our own any more than what we possess is our own. We did not make ourselves, we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We are not our own masters. We are God's property. Is it not our happiness thus to view the matter? Is it any happiness or any comfort, to consider that we are our own? It may be thought so by the young and prosperous. These may think it a great thing to have everything, as they suppose, their own way–to depend on no one–to have to think of nothing out of sight, to be without the irksomeness of continual acknowledgment, continual prayer, continual reference of what they do to the will of another. But as time goes on, they, as all men, will find that independence was not made for man–that it is an unnatural state–will do for a while, but will not carry us on safely to the end.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aldous Huxley", "slug": "aldous-huxley", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley" }, "book": { "title": "Brave New World", "slug": "brave-new-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brave_New_World#Chapter_17", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:35" }, { "id": "86de5bd2-fbee-4339-80a7-b6f2506e27c4", "slug": "no-man-should", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/lonesome-traveler/no-man-should", "text": "No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. Learning for instance, to eat when he's hungry and sleep when he's sleepy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Kerouac", "slug": "jack-kerouac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac" }, "book": { "title": "Lonesome Traveler", "slug": "lonesome-traveler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/lonesome-traveler" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac#Lonesome_Traveler_(1960)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:31" }, { "id": "de6e319a-776d-4d93-b042-24d91b325570", "slug": "as-a-way", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/representations-of-the-intellectual/as-a-way", "text": "As a way of maintaining relative intellectual independence, having the attitude of an amateur instead of a professional is a better course.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward W. Said", "slug": "edward-w-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said" }, "book": { "title": "Representations of the Intellectual", "slug": "representations-of-the-intellectual", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/representations-of-the-intellectual" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 87, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "intellectuals", "slug": "intellectuals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intellectuals" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Said#Representations_of_the_Intellectual:_The_1993_Reith_Lectures", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:22" }, { "id": "06ba1c6c-967f-43c6-8491-8e1b65c98f8a", "slug": "the-consuming-desire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant/the-consuming-desire", "text": "The consuming desire of most human beings is deliberately to place their entire life in the hands of some other person. For this purpose they frequently choose someone who doesn’t even want the beastly thing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Quentin Crisp", "slug": "quentin-crisp", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp" }, "book": { "title": "The Naked Civil Servant", "slug": "the-naked-civil-servant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Quentin_Crisp#The_Naked_Civil_Servant_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:11" }, { "id": "2fb12143-c1de-4c0f-99a6-8a1121c11115", "slug": "and-then-i-thought", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/surely-youre-joking-mr-feynman/and-then-i-thought", "text": "And then I thought to myself, \"You know, what they think of you is so fantastic, it's impossible to live up to it. You have no responsibility to live up to it!\"It was a brilliant idea: You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard P. Feynman", "slug": "richard-p-feynman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman" }, "book": { "title": "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman", "slug": "surely-youre-joking-mr-feynman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/surely-youre-joking-mr-feynman" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 172, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#Surely_You're_Joking,_Mr._Feynman!_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:00" }, { "id": "2670b0b5-57cb-4c35-a507-a1689cbda914", "slug": "when-others-place", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/when-others-place", "text": "When others place impossible expectations on a man, he must redefine his goals, and forge his own path. That way at least someone is satisfied.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune", "slug": "dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "purpose", "slug": "purpose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/purpose" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Dune:_The_Battle_of_Corrin_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:50" }, { "id": "bd279634-4911-4c4b-a51c-7aa8166e3950", "slug": "it-does-seem", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/it-does-seem", "text": "It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own. But how easy and how hopeless to teach these fine things! Of erections, how few are domed like St. Peter's! of creatures, how few vast as the whale!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 343, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "individualism", "slug": "individualism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/individualism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#The_Blanket_(68)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:41" }, { "id": "5da1aebf-2007-425b-8367-9494fc8a5ad6", "slug": "but-oh-shipmates", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/but-oh-shipmates", "text": "But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep. Is not the main-truck higher than the kelson is low? Delight is to him—a far, far upward, and inward delight—who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 53, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "joy", "slug": "joy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#The_Sermon_(9)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:40" }, { "id": "bac49092-1911-44a4-b65d-87a3207134da", "slug": "in-america-a-woman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/in-america-a-woman", "text": "In America a woman loses her independence for ever in the bonds of matrimony. While there is less constraint on girls there than anywhere else, a wife submits to stricter obligations. For the former, her father's house is a home of freedom and pleasure; for the latter, her husband's is almost a cloister.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexis de Tocqueville", "slug": "alexis-de-tocqueville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville" }, "book": { "title": "Democracy in America", "slug": "democracy-in-america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "marriage", "slug": "marriage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/marriage" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Democracy_in_America,_Volume_II_(1840)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:38" }, { "id": "964dc5b5-9fdf-42bf-8af7-ec5e845d46c4", "slug": "furthermore-when-citizens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/furthermore-when-citizens", "text": "Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexis de Tocqueville", "slug": "alexis-de-tocqueville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville" }, "book": { "title": "Democracy in America", "slug": "democracy-in-america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "equality", "slug": "equality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Democracy_in_America,_Volume_I_(1835)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:37" }, { "id": "d11aa205-b7d5-4e0d-a1c8-f6e21b6a2161", "slug": "heaven-helps-those", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-smiles/self-help-with-illustrations-of-conduct-and-perseverance/heaven-helps-those", "text": "\"Heaven helps those who help themselves\" is a well-tried maxim, embodying in a small compass the results of vast human experience. The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national vigour and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates. Whatever is done for men or classes, to a certain extent takes away the stimulus and necessity of doing for themselves; and where men are subjected to over-guidance and over-government, the inevitable tendency is to render them comparatively helpless.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel Smiles", "slug": "samuel-smiles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-smiles" }, "book": { "title": "Self-Help: With Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance", "slug": "self-help-with-illustrations-of-conduct-and-perseverance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-smiles/self-help-with-illustrations-of-conduct-and-perseverance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "helping others", "slug": "helping-others", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/helping-others" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Smiles#Self-Help%3B_with_Illustrations_of_Character_and_Conduct_(1859)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:16" }, { "id": "75d427ae-4030-40cf-9257-c1aaf5294501", "slug": "to-guide-him", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/to-guide-him", "text": "To guide him in this inquiry, after we have shown him men by means of the accidents common to the species, we must now show him them by means of their differences. This is the time for estimating inequality natural and civil, and for the scheme of the whole social order. Society must be studied in the individual and the individual in society; those who desire to treat politics and morals apart from one another will never understand either. By confining ourselves at first to the primitive relations, we see how men should be influenced by them and what passions should spring from them; we see that it is in proportion to the development of these passions that a man's relations with others expand or contract. It is not so much strength of arm as moderation of spirit which makes men free and independent. The man whose wants are few is dependent on but few people, but those who constantly confound our vain desires with our bodily needs, those who have made these needs the basis of human society, are continually mistaking effects for causes, and they have only confused themselves by their own reasoning. Since it is impossible in the state of nature that the difference between man and man should be great enough to make one dependent on another, there is in fact in this state of nature an actual and indestructible equality. In the civil state there is a vain and chimerical equality of right; the means intended for its maintenance, themselves serve to destroy it; and the power of the community, added to the power of the strongest for the oppression of the weak, disturbs the sort of equilibrium which nature has established between them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "equality", "slug": "equality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "4897356b-0bd9-4cb0-aa3a-9213de198237", "slug": "sufficiently-sensitive-to-understand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/sufficiently-sensitive-to-understand", "text": "sufficiently sensitive to understand every human passion, and calm enough to be free from passion. If there is any time in our life when this study is likely to be appreciated, it is this that I have chosen for Emile; before this time men would have been strangers to him; later on he would have been like them. Convention, the effects of which he already perceives, has not yet made him its slave, the passions, whose consequences he realises, have not yet stirred his heart. He is a man; he takes an interest in his brethren; he is a just man and he judges his peers. Now it is certain that if he judges them rightly he will not want to change places with any one of them, for the goal of all their anxious efforts is the result of prejudices which he does not share, and that goal seems to him a mere dream. For his own part, he has all he wants within his reach. How should he be dependent on any one when he is self-sufficing and free from prejudice? Strong arms, good health, [Footnote: I think I may fairly reckon health and strength among the advantages he has obtained by his education, or rather among the gifts of nature which his education has preserved for him.] moderation, few needs, together with the means to satisfy those needs, are his. He has been brought up in complete liberty and servitude is the greatest ill he understands. He pities these miserable kings, the slaves of all who obey them; he pities these false prophets fettered by their empty fame; he pities these rich fools, martyrs to their own pomp; he pities these ostentatious voluptuaries, who spend their life in deadly dullness that they may seem to enjoy its pleasures.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "moderation", "slug": "moderation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/moderation" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "3ada4bd5-3d28-4662-ae3d-23ccd0a43af5", "slug": "he-thinks-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/he-thinks-not", "text": "He thinks not of others but of himself, and prefers that others should do the same. He makes no claim upon them, and acknowledges no debt to them. He is alone in the midst of human society, he depends on himself alone, for he is all that a boy can be at his age. He has no errors, or at least only such as are inevitable; he has no vices, or only those from which no man can escape. His body is healthy, his limbs are supple, his mind is accurate and unprejudiced, his heart is free and untroubled by passion. Pride, the earliest and the most natural of passions, has scarcely shown itself. Without disturbing the peace of others, he has passed his life contented, happy, and free, so far as nature allows. Do you think that the earlier years of a child, who has reached his fifteenth year in this condition, have been wasted?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" }, { "name": "growing up", "slug": "growing-up", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_III", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:33" }, { "id": "1de84b42-1387-4f1d-af4b-bfb43b9c0037", "slug": "learning-a-trade", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/learning-a-trade", "text": "Learning a trade matters less than overcoming the prejudices he despises. You will never be reduced to earning your livelihood; so much the worse for you. No matter; work for honour, not for need: stoop to the position of a working man, to rise above your own. To conquer Fortune and everything else, begin by independence. To rule through public opinion, begin by ruling over it. Remember I demand no talent, only a trade, a genuine trade, a mere mechanical art, in which the hands work harder than the head, a trade which does not lead to fortune but makes you independent of her.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_III", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:33" }, { "id": "117ea9f3-2553-4c06-8cee-ef40e038a651", "slug": "as-for-my-pupil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/as-for-my-pupil", "text": "As for my pupil, or rather Nature's pupil, he has been trained from the outset to be as self-reliant as possible, he has not formed the habit of constantly seeking help from others, still less of displaying his stores of learning. On the other hand, he exercises discrimination and forethought, he reasons about everything that concerns himself. He does not chatter, he acts. Not a word does he know of what is going on in the world at large, but he knows very thoroughly what affects himself. As he is always stirring he is compelled to notice many things, to recognise many effects; he soon acquires a good deal of experience. Nature, not man, is his schoolmaster, and he learns all the quicker because he is not aware that he has any lesson to learn. So mind and body work together. He is always carrying out his own ideas, not those of other people, and thus he unites thought and action; as he grows in health and strength he grows in wisdom and discernment.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "experience", "slug": "experience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/experience" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_II", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:32" }, { "id": "54b1eafd-1455-4633-a029-9d0584deaf57", "slug": "there-are-two", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/there-are-two", "text": "There are two kinds of dependence: dependence on things, which is the work of nature; and dependence on men, which is the work of society. Dependence on things, being non-moral, does no injury to liberty and begets no vices; dependence on men, being out of order, gives rise to every kind of vice, and through this master and slave become mutually depraved.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_II", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:31" }, { "id": "26982ece-1347-490a-9404-afc6beaf9022", "slug": "supply-the-strength", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/supply-the-strength", "text": "Supply the strength he lacks just so far as is required for freedom, not for power, so that he may receive your services with a sort of shame, and look forward to the time when he may dispense with them and may achieve the honour of self-help.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "upbringing", "slug": "upbringing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_II", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:31" } ] }