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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.

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

Financial independence is paramount. My mom always says that when a woman is financially independent, she has the ability to live life on her own terms. I think that was the soundest advice that I ever got. No matter where you go in life or who you get married to, you have to be financially independent - whether you use it or not.

Independence is happiness.

The world is independent of my will.

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

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

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

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

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

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

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

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

A good job is more than just a paycheck. A good job fosters independence and discipline, and contributes to the health of the community. A good job is a means to provide for the health and welfare of your family, to own a home, and save for retirement.

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

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

The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought.

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

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

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

Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.

Perhaps my problem in marriage - and it is the problem of many women - was to want both intimacy and independence. It is a difficult line to walk, yet both needs are important to a marriage.

Socialism is a sacred cause for realizing the demand and desire of the masses of the people for independence; it is a revolutionary cause that advances amid a fierce struggle against imperialism and all other counterrevolutionary forces.

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

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

Some experiences can give you a chip on your shoulder, but they also teach you the value of independence and looking out for yourself.

Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.

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

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

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

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

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

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

The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.

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

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

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

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

Injustice in the end produces independence.

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

Energy conservation is the foundation of energy independence.

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

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

The American Dream is independence and being able to create that dream for yourself.

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

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

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

Your life must be a progression towards ownership - first mentally of your independence, and then physically of your work, owning what you produce.

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

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

My mom has made it possible for me to be who I am. Our family is everything. Her greatest skill was encouraging me to find my own person and own independence.

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

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

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

No matter how good you are, at some point your kids are gonna have to create their own independence and think that Mom and Dad aren't cool, just to establish themselves. That's what adolescence is about. They're gonna go through that no matter what.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solitude is independence.

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

True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage.

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

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

What you get free costs too much.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

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

There's no such thing as an independent person.

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