I'm lost in space and I want to find a way home. Nobody else can get me back to the planet, so I have to do it myself.

The knowledge worker cannot be supervised closely or in detail. He must direct himself toward performance and contribution

You can love people, and you can befriend them, but the only person you can ever one hundred percent depend on is yourself.

The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.

America... goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

Everything thing I have ever achieved in life I have accomplished on my own – I've earned it - even the bad stuff.

At a trade show, someone said, "You'll get in trouble for that." I replied,"Are they going to call the trade show police?

Sun and wind and beat of sea,Great lands stretching endlessly...Where be bonds to bind the free?All the world was made for me!

Being brave enough to be alone frees you up to invite people into your life because you want them and not because you need them.

I am anchored on a resolve you cannot shake. My heart, my conscience shall dispose of my hand -- they only. Know this at last.

You've had it the easiest. What good is all your privilege, you soft, spoiled thing, if you can't stand on your own legs?

It is only just that anything that grows up on its own should feel it has nothing to repay for an upbringing which it owes no one.

A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice."[Stanford University commencement speech, 2005]

National Review's premise was that conformity was especially egregious among the intellectuals, that herd of independent minds.