Leo Tolstoy Quotes

We have built our State on the freedom of personal adventure.

I am a rank individualist.

We believe in personal choice, rather than society dictating how we must live our lives.

But egoism is more than this. It is the realization by the individual that he is above all institutions and all formulas; that they exist only so far as he chooses to make them his own by accepting them.

Freedom of speech isn't something somebody else gives you. That's something you give to yourself.

Man exists for his own sake, and not to add a laborer to the State.

The essence of freedom is that each of us shares in the shaping of his own destiny.

The individual is greater than the state.

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

… not to destroy individualism but to protect it

Many Americans abhor paternalism. They think that people should be able to go their own way, even if they end up in a ditch. When they run risks, even foolish ones, it isn't anybody's business that they do.

Libertarianism is a way of measuring how the government and other kinds of systems respect the individual. At the core of libertarianism is the idea that the individual is sacrosanct and that anything that's done contrary to the well-being of the individual needs some pretty serious justification.

Don't be dependent. At all. Ever. Period.

We read a lot from the Satanic bible. It's not quite the opposite of the normal bible - a lot of its principles are just about being yourself, if you want to do something you do it, if you wanna have affairs you can. But we never hold daily rituals or anything.

You just gotta live your life and do it your way.

I don't want to depend on anyone.

I've lived a life that's full, I traveled each and ev'ry highway, And more, much more than this, I did it my way.

Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.

I always went my own road and on my own legs where I had a mind to go.

This right to life, this right to liberty, and this right to pursue one's happiness is unabashedly individualistic, without in the slightest denying at the same time our thoroughly social nature. It's only that our social relations, while vital to us all, must be chosen - that is what makes the crucial difference.

Individualism regards man-every man-as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being.

I've always been like nah, I'm going to have it my way, that way, when I look out that window at the end of the day, I can say I did it my way, whether it's on a higher level, or a level where I can just maintain, I can still say I did it my way.

We heed no instincts but our own.

That's basically the mantra of Herr Silverman's teaching - think for yourself and do what's right for you, but let others do the same.

I didn't start running because somebody asked me to become a runner. Just like I didn't become a novelist because someone asked me to. One day, out of the blue, I wanted to write a novel. And one day, out of the blue, I started to run-simply because I wanted to. I've always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I'm wrong, but I won't change.