Pete Townshend Quotes

What work do I have to do then?" said Will, but went on at once, "No, on second thought, don't tell me. I shall decide what I do. If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatever you might say, I'll always be thinking about it. And if I do end up doing that, I'll be resentful because it'll feel as if I didn't have a choice, and if I don't do it, I'll feel guilty because I should. Whatever I do, I will choose it, no one else.

People have power to make a difference in their lives.

If we are not even free anymore to decide something as basic as what we wish to eat or drink, how much freedom do we really have left?

Why can't fellows be allowed to do what they like when they like and as they like, instead of other fellows sitting on banks and watching them all the time and making remarks and poetry and things about them?

Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgement and nothing can help you escape it - that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life.

I'm not representing other people. I'm representing me.

I was kind of raised with the suggestion that I had a duty to do; that life was real, life was earnest. And I hated that, actually. I needed to be liberated, to be told that I could live the life that I wanted to live; that I didn't need a job, or to be shouted at; that I could be myself; that I could be happy.

Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self.

One doesn't want one's identity coerced.

If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are slave.

You have a right to say no. Most of us have very weak and flaccid 'no' muscles. We feel guilty for saying no. We get ostracized and challenged for saying no, so we forget it's our choice. Your 'no' muscle has to be built up to get to a place where you can say, 'I don't care if that's what you want. I don't want that. No.'

We know we need civilization and laws and procedures, but isn't it frustrating? Wouldn't it be great if we could just do what we needed to do?

I want freedom and I realize that the only way to get it is to quit breaking the law.

You never want me in a position to have to think. That's bad.

Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

If a person possesses any tolerable amount of common sense and experience, his own mode of laying out his existence is the best.

The individual is not accountable to society for his actions, insofar as these concern the interests of no person but himself.

The question is whether personal freedom is worth the terrible effort, the never-lifted burden and risks of self-reliance?

Man must assume responsibility for the direction of his life and destiny.

I'm going to stand up for what I need to do, not what everybody else wants me to do.

Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the 'leaders' must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.

Why is freedom such a hard sell? That's the question. In this country, why has the idea of individual liberty and responsibility become such a hard sell? That's something I never thought would happen here.

I don't owe any explanations for anybody I'm fighting.

I'm not going to be told that I shouldn't be doing anything, or behaving in any particular way at any age of my life.

Whether people agree with you or not, take an active role in what happens in your life.