Walker Percy Quotes

There is truth in the high opinion that in so far as a man conforms, he ceases to exist.

Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, the necessity of being the man you are and not another. You are free to be that man, but not another.

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

He who integrates is lost.

It is always the same: once you are liberated, you are forced to ask who you are.

Identity is not negotiable. An identity you have achieved by agreement is always a prison.

Do not live someone else's life and someone else's idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you. Womanhood is everything that's inside of you.

Every man has within him only one life and one nature ... It behooves a man to look within himself and turn to the best dedication possible those endowments he has from his Maker. You do no wrong in questioning what once you held to be right for you, if now it has come to seem wrong. Put away all thought of being bound. We do not want you bound. No one who is not free can give freely.

At a certain point, you must be able to slip loose. At a certain point, you found that you had been set free. You could be anyone, he thought. You could be anyone.

I'm history! No, I'm mythology! Nah, I don't care what I am, I'm free!

In order to realize our true self we must be willing to live without being dependent upon the opinion of others.

Every act is an act of self definition.

A man is a beggar who only lives to the useful, and, however he may serve as a pin or rivet in the social machine, cannot be saidto have arrived at self-possession.

Believing means liberating the indestructible element in oneself, or, more accurately, liberating oneself, or, more accurately, being indestructible, or, more accurately, being.

We only get to be one person; we don't even get to choose that person. By the time we get ahold of ourselves, we are pieces already in play.

When we're growing up there are all sorts of people telling us what to do when really what we need is space to work out who to be.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

People have to learn who they are - you can't have somebody else telling you who you are.

I needed freedom to really express myself. That's really what Justified is about.

I have the freedom to take chances, to say no. I have the freedom to be who I really want to be, rather than have to conform to this or that just to stay alive.

I felt totally released from the need to make it as an actress. I had experienced complete fulfillment in something that had nothing to do with me being in the spotlight.

We need a place in which we may flourish and be ourselves.

Only by living absurdly is it possible to break out of this infinite absurdity.

I choose to express myself.