Independence quotes — Page 3

Woman in the Nineteenth Century, in the discussion of Miranda; Fuller explicitly connects awakened self-respect with serenity and inward peace.

The Innocents Abroad (1869), Chapter XLVIII. Twain criticizes travel writers who frame rhapsodic pictures and later pilgrims who see through those authors’ eyes and speak with their language instead of observing independently. Verified against the scan-backed 1869 first edition.

Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Appendix in the fourth-edition text represented by Project Gutenberg #61143. The edition states that the preceding edition’s extended Preface was moved to the end as an Appendix; there Astell asks, “If all Men are born Free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?” while challenging claims of natural male supremacy. It is early-modern feminist political-religious polemic, not a literal equation of every form of historical slavery.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke; Wollstonecraft frames the pamphlet as a defense of human rights and the liberty of reason.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Wollstonecraft distinguishes equality and self-government from power over others.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Introduction, Project Gutenberg #3420. The frozen quotation 'I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body' is a clause from a longer sentence beginning 'I earnestly wish to point out...' and continuing through Wollstonecraft's criticism of delicacy and weakness as feminine ideals. It remains eighteenth-century feminist political-moral argument rather than a modern clinical or physiological prescription.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, concluding discussion of women as rational citizens and the mutual improvement of both sexes.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Wollstonecraft argues that deliberately narrowing women’s education preserves dependence and obedience.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Wollstonecraft explicitly connects independence of character with the exercise of understanding.

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Letter I; represented Cassell & Company 1889 text in Project Gutenberg #3529, preserving Wollstonecraft’s 1796 travel-letter work. After describing the customary maritime rule against sending out a boat, Wollstonecraft says that “men with common minds seldom break through general rules” while criticizing the captain’s reluctance to depart from convention. This is a first-person travel judgment about a particular situation, not a general empirical claim about ordinary people.

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), “MORAL DISCIPLINE,” beginning on printed page 22, Project Gutenberg #67466. “I wish them to be taught to think” follows Wollstonecraft’s recommendation that children compare similar and different ideas; the sentence continues into the next printed page and remains historical educational reform argument.

Essays of Montaigne, Book I, Chapter XXXVIII, ‘Of Solitude,’ Charles Cotton translation edited by William Carew Hazlitt (1877); Project Gutenberg Volume 06 #3586 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne’s self-possession sentence occurs in his discussion of inward independence and making a retreat that does not leave the self owned by external obligations.

Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter X, “Of Managing the Will,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 18 #3598 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne describes lending oneself to external affairs without allowing them to possess the whole will.

How to Succeed, “Hold Up Your Head”; Marden follows a Lincoln anecdote by arguing that self-respect depends on deserving one’s own approval.

How to Succeed, chapter “Hold Up Your Head,” in the Project Gutenberg text; the book’s period language and success philosophy are preserved as historical self-development writing.

The Victorious Attitude; the sentence is followed by explicitly religious language about faith, so the source page keeps that spiritual context visible.

The Victorious Attitude, chapter on faith; Marden explicitly distinguishes other people’s good opinion from the faith in oneself he calls imperative.

The Victorious Attitude, opening chapter; the rhetoric is deliberately motivational and reflects early twentieth-century success literature rather than an empirical psychological claim.

An Ideal Husband, Act III; Lord Goring tells Phipps “The only possible society is oneself” immediately before the lifelong-romance epigram. Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act III transcription and Project Gutenberg #885; the line remains dandyish comic character speech rather than uncomplicated authorial doctrine.

An Ideal Husband, Act III; Lord Goring tells Phipps that “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance” immediately after saying that the only possible society is oneself. Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act III transcription and Project Gutenberg #885. This remains comic fictional dialogue in Wilde’s social comedy rather than a psychological finding.

An Ideal Husband, Act I; Mrs. Cheveley—not Lord Goring—answers Sir Robert Chiltern’s question “You prefer to be natural?” with “Sometimes. But it is such a very difficult pose to keep up.” Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act I transcription and Project Gutenberg #885.

The Soul of Man under Socialism; Wilde defends individual thought while criticizing social pressure that mistakes conformity for moral virtue.

The Art of Money Getting, section “Avoid Debt”; Project Gutenberg #8581. The advice is period-specific and not a blanket claim that every productive use of credit is harmful.

The Art of Money Getting, “Avoid Debt”; Project Gutenberg #8581. This is Barnum’s forceful moral rhetoric, not a clinical claim about every debtor’s mental state.

Elements of Morals, Chapter XIV, section 165, printed page 296, Caroline Rollin Corson’s 1884 English translation, Project Gutenberg #37016. “Remember that thou art a man and do not degrade thyself: this is self-respect” appears in the same paragraph as Janet’s paired reminder against vain pride, making self-respect and humility complementary parts of his moral argument rather than generic affirmation copy.

Elements of Morals, Chapter XIV, section 165, printed page 296, Caroline Rollin Corson’s 1884 English translation, Project Gutenberg #37016. Janet distinguishes humility from abasement: humility arises from recognition of human weakness, but lowering oneself is not itself a virtue. The passage belongs to nineteenth-century systematic moral philosophy rather than modern clinical self-esteem guidance.

Apology, Jowett translation; Socrates rejects saving himself through a style of pleading he considers unworthy.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, maxim 14, in Darius Lyman’s 1856 English rendering; maxim order can vary across editions.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 997, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).

Stray Birds, aphorism 28, Project Gutenberg #6524, translated from Bengali by Tagore himself. ‘O BEAUTY, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thy mirror’ is a compact personified poetic aphorism placed between numbered sayings 27 and 29. It should not be flattened into a literal rule about appearance, self-worth or relationships.

Essays, First Series, essay VIII, ‘Heroism,’ Project Gutenberg #2944. ‘Self-trust is the essence of heroism’ occurs as Emerson defines the heroic soul's defiance of falsehood and wrong. It remains Transcendentalist moral and conduct-of-life rhetoric rather than a clinical personality measure or empirical prediction of courageous behavior.

Self-Reliance; Emerson gives the imperative while arguing for originality, self-trust, and resistance to imitation rather than dependence on another person’s model.

Essay “Self-Reliance.”

Essays, First Series, essay II, “Self-Reliance,” Project Gutenberg #2944. “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” follows Emerson’s claim that society conspires against the manhood of its members through conformity. The represented Gutenberg witness prints a comma after “man,” while the frozen catalog quotation omits that punctuation; the wording is otherwise the same. It remains Transcendentalist moral rhetoric about self-trust and independence rather than a universal instruction to reject social norms or expertise.

Self-Reliance, in Emerson’s discussion of genuine action rather than virtue performed as spectacle.

Self-Reliance, in the passage beginning with Emerson’s argument for nonconformity.

Society and Solitude, essay “Success”; Project Gutenberg #69258. Emerson immediately explains self-trust as believing that one is here “for cause” or for a task fitted to one's constitution, while warning that it does not mean rushing into a showy feat for spectators.

The American Scholar, 1837 address, Project Gutenberg #16643. Emerson says the scholar’s duties may be comprised in self-trust; the claim belongs to transcendentalist intellectual and civic rhetoric, not a guarantee that private conviction is always correct.

The American Scholar; Emerson contrasts creative reading with allowing past books to pull a person away from an independent intellectual orbit.

The Conduct of Life, essay II, “Power,” Project Gutenberg #39827. “Life is a search after power” appears at the opening of Emerson’s prose discussion after the verse epigraph and introduces his account of capacity, agency and human influence. It remains nineteenth-century Transcendentalist conduct-of-life philosophy rather than an empirical law of motivation or success.

“To Althea, from Prison,” in Lucasta, Project Gutenberg #703. The poem was written in the context of Lovelace’s imprisonment and expresses Cavalier political and personal loyalty; its claim about freedom is poetic rather than a denial of the real harms of incarceration.

If—, first stanza; the following line qualifies self-confidence with fairness toward doubters.

The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, “Pope”; Wikisource transcription of Johnson's Life of Pope. Johnson writes the sentence while discussing Alexander Pope's early estimate of his own abilities and immediately qualifies it by warning that isolated self-estimation can err.

Self-Help, Chapter I, “Self-Help—National and Individual,” Project Gutenberg #935. This is the opening chapter’s statement of Smiles’s self-help argument, where individual initiative is presented as a source of personal growth and, in his period framework, national strength.

Self-Help, Chapter XI, “Self-Culture—Facilities and Difficulties,” Project Gutenberg #935. In the discussion of decision and promptitude, Smiles argues that excessive guidance can weaken self-reliance and that lack of confidence can obstruct improvement by discouraging prompt action.

Self-Help, Chapter I, “Self-Help—National and Individual,” Project Gutenberg #935. The sentence immediately follows Smiles’s statement that the spirit of self-help is the root of individual growth. It is preserved as Victorian conduct-of-life rhetoric, not as evidence that receiving help is generally harmful.

Thrift, Chapter I, “Industry,” Project Gutenberg #14418. The sentence occurs in the same definition of thrift as an acquired principle of conduct: present enjoyment is subordinated to forethought so that action serves today while providing for tomorrow.

Thrift, Chapter II, “Habits of Thrift,” Project Gutenberg #14418. The sentence summarizes Smiles’s preceding argument that social improvement begins with individual conduct, example and self-respect before one attempts to elevate others.

Thrift, Preface; original Preface dated London, November 1875, verified in Project Gutenberg #14418’s represented John Murray Fiftieth Thousand witness (London, 1892). Smiles introduces the book as a sequel to Self-Help and Character and writes that thrift is the basis of Self-Help and the foundation of much that is excellent in Character. This remains Victorian conduct-of-life and moral-economic argument rather than current financial guidance.

Letter 92 contrasts self-sustaining virtue with happiness dependent on external props.

Of Peace of Mind, section VI, Aubrey Stewart translation (1889), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #64576 and Wikisource. The sentence opens Seneca’s advice to form a true estimate of oneself before matching undertakings to one’s actual abilities and temperament.

Of Peace of Mind, section II, Aubrey Stewart translation in Minor Dialogues Together with the Dialogue on Clemency (1889), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #64576 and the complete Wikisource transcription. Seneca tells Serenus to have confidence in himself and believe he is proceeding on the right path while defining the steady condition he calls peace of mind.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter II; follows the example of people living through chains of obligation.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter XIX; Seneca closes by asking the engrossed to measure how much of their lifetime was actually their own.

Dhammapada 160, Chapter XII “Self,” Max Müller translation; “subdued” reflects the translation’s ethical discipline and should not be read as self-contempt.

Dhammapada 157, Chapter XII “Self,” in Max Müller’s translation; the verse explicitly joins self-regard with watchfulness and ethical discipline.

Dhammapada 165, Chapter XII “Self,” Max Müller translation; “purity” is religious-ethical language from the source, not a claim about personal worth or bodily purity.

Sartor Resartus, Book II, Chapter IX, “The Everlasting Yea,” printed page 156 / Wikisource scan leaf 188 in The Works of Thomas Carlyle, Centenary Edition, Vol. I (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896). “The Ideal is in thyself” occurs in the same spiritual-enfranchisement passage, where Teufelsdröckh argues that the present “Actual” supplies the material to shape an inward Ideal. This collection retains that fictional, metaphysical and explicitly religious frame rather than converting it into modern clinical or self-esteem doctrine.

Rights of Man; this sentence precedes Paine’s well-known cosmopolitan statement about country and doing good.

The Age of Reason, Part I, Chapter I, “The Author’s Profession of Faith”; Moncure Daniel Conway collected/edited text represented by Project Gutenberg #3743 and cross-checked against Wikisource. “It is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself” introduces Paine’s argument that infidelity consists in professing a belief one does not actually hold. It remains historical moral/religious argument about conscience and sincerity rather than modern clinical guidance about happiness.

Darkwater, essay “Of Beauty and Death.” The preceding sentence says that simply wanting to be oneself can be inconceivable to “the average worshiper of the majority”; the line is about individuality amid racialized conformity pressures.

Song of Myself, 1882 text; this statement begins a sequence of increasingly expansive declarations about the speaker’s place in the universe.

Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself.”

Song of Myself, section 1 in the 1882 Leaves of Grass text, printed page 29 (Wikisource scan page 35). The retained wording “I celebrate myself, and sing myself” is not the 1855 first-edition opening, which reads only “I celebrate myself”; the synchronized source year is therefore corrected from 1855 to 1882.

Near the close of “Song of Myself”; Whitman turns self-expression into a large, physical cry.

Leaves of Grass (1855), untitled first-edition poem later known as “Song of Myself,” printed page 14 (Wikisource scan page 20). The sentence follows Whitman’s warning against taking things at second or third hand and against looking only through another person’s eyes; the reviewed locator is edition-specific.

Song of Myself, in the passage celebrating the body and the speaker’s delight in his own existence.

Song of Myself, 1882 text; Whitman immediately compares this unapologetic stance with elementary laws that never apologize.

Leaves of Grass (1855), untitled first-edition poem later known as “Song of Myself,” printed page 55 (Wikisource scan page 61). The verbal passage is present there, while this collection retains the more familiar later punctuation/parenthetical presentation. Later editions number this movement section 51; that section number is cross-edition orientation only and is not presented as 1855 structure.

Walt Whitman, 'Song of the Open Road,' section 5 in the represented 1882 Leaves of Grass text. 'I am larger, better than I thought, I did not know I held so much goodness' follows the speaker's declaration of being loosed from imagined limits. It remains poetic first-person self-discovery rather than empirical psychology.

Leaves of Grass (1860), poem “Walt Whitman’s Caution,” represented on Wikisource from the 1860 edition.

“Proverbs of Hell.”

Self-Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, “The Kingship of Self-Control.” Project Gutenberg #51469. The line belongs to late-nineteenth-century self-mastery literature and is not evidence that circumstance is irrelevant.

Self-Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, later discussion of individual possibility. The sentence is motivational rhetoric about human potential rather than a measurable universal prediction.

The Majesty of Calmness, “The Dignity of Self-Reliance.” The represented 1900 work is public domain; the investment metaphor belongs to Jordan’s conduct-of-life rhetoric, not financial advice.

The Majesty of Calmness, “The Dignity of Self-Reliance.” Jordan’s ideal of independence is period self-development writing; it does not require isolation or refusal of legitimate help.

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3; Polonius gives Laertes this advice before Laertes leaves for France.

Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2, in the 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Lawrence Mason. Cassius tells Brutus that men can be masters of their fates and immediately continues, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.’ This is Cassius’s political persuasion inside the drama, not neutral historical evidence or Shakespeare speaking directly.