Shirin Ebadi Quotes

People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you're lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.

I have never been convinced throughout my life that one needs to be imitating others. I even tell my daughters not to look at me as a model.

Figuring things out for yourself is the only freedom anyone really has. Use that freedom.

Question authority; think for yourself. Talk to people, do things unrelated to school - to come up with your own framework for living. The world is too complex and people are too different to be overly prescriptive about the details.

I am sure it is one's duty as a teacher to try to show boys that no opinions, no tastes, no emotions are worth much unless they are one's own. I suffered acutely as a boy from the lack of being shown this.

My life choices are not supposed to be the gateway to somebody else's. That's my journey.

Doubt everything. Find your own light.

I think what my 42 years of life has given me is just how important it is to live your own life.

As a southern woman, we often define ourselves by who we are with. But I wanted my life to be built differently.

All of my friends are independent in thought, that's important.

Wake-up! Think for yourself, be yourself and return to what is real.

True individuality can be lonely.

Learn to see, listen, and think for yourself.

Listen to everyone, follow no one.

Be yourself and think for yourself, and while your conclusions may not be infallible they will be nearer right than the inclusions forced upon you by those who have a personal interest in keeping you in ignorance.

Life choices and projects and photo shoots, I can't base them on anybody else but myself. I've done things where I'm like, "Do I want my dad to see this? I don't know!" But the best lesson I can teach my sisters, or any younger women, is "Do what YOU do. Don't follow me, follow you."

The kids are not brought up to have minds of their own as individuals.

I love my father, but I have worked to develop a separate and distinct identity in different projects I have worked on.

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.

Think your own thoughts.

For me, I want my kids to find their way. If they're interested in something, I want them to try it out.

Even though you're married, you're still individuals. You still have to grow and nurture your individuality.

I want an identity outside of my work.

Forget about trying to compete with someone else. Create your own pathway. Create your own new vision.

It's a life's journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.