Patti Smith Quotes

We're each our own person, we live our own lives, make our own mistakes, learn from them and move forward.

You have to live through things. You can't have other people telling you to do that and do this. It's important to live through things.

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.

We must be our own before we can be another's.

In my limited experience, you have to make your own decisions in life and experience things for yourself.

The good thing about flying solo is it's never boring.

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.

My father raised me to think independently and follow my own path in life.

In a very slow way, I found my path. Even now, I think, 'If I can't do it my way, I'd rather not do it.'

I've grown up a lot, I'm on my own, and I've learned some valuable life lessons.

You come to realize that only one person can tell you what's expected of you, and that's you.

My real guru are my experiences in life - the realisation that you are alone in this world came very early to me.

I don't think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.

I need to be allowed to make my own decisions and mistakes, take leaps - and fall - without receiving too much help, because it's what I'll be doing for the rest of my life.

I have a pretty good family. But ever since I was little, I just felt like I wanted to be on my own. It was the same thing about school.

It's important to let kids be themselves and to let them make mistakes. Self-discovery goes a long way.

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

I had played on the police athletic league, but my father had a unique thing, he always said, 'Before you start going to basketball camp and doing all the things, you should learn about yourself first before somebody else starts telling you how to play.'

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

Now that I'm older, I understand that it's up to the individual to decide who they are or what they are.

I'd say the best thing my parents passed on to me was to let me make my own mistakes and figure out on my age how to kind of see the world on my own.

I didn't just want to be the one who was always looking around at the weird family members. I wanted to make my mistakes.

Somewhere along the way, without me even noticing, I grew up Alex. For once, I couldn’t take advice from anyone around me about what I should or shouldn’t do. I couldn’t go running to mum and dad and I can’t compare my marriage to anybody else’s, we all follow our own rules.

Hold your own. Know your name. And go your own way. And everything will be fine.