Octavia E. Butler Quotes

You don't become completely free by just avoiding being a slave; you also need to avoid becoming a master.

He is great enough that is his own master.

The truly great man is he who would master no one, and who would be mastered by none.

If I want to be free from any other man's dictation, I must understand that I can have no other man under my control.

What we want is to become masters in our own house.

Of my own spirit let me be in sole though feeble mastery.

To be one's own master is to be the slave of self.

There is a core independence and dignity you get when you control your own time.

I like being in control of my own destiny, really.

Children can become self-reliant and self-disciplined by being free to do what they want to do.

Only in the crucible of self-mastery can freedom be smelted

Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave.

Possession means to sit astride the world Instead of having it astride of you.

A desire to be in charge of our own lives, a need for control, is born in each of us. It is essential to our mental health, and our success, that we take control.

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.

I enjoy making the decisions.

I am a great believer in people taking control of their own lives.

What is nice about this sport is that I am responsible for most everything.

In my work I have complete control, but about my life, I don't want to.

I am alone, some people help me, but, basically, I can do what I want.

I think self-reliance and self-responsibility and self-accountability will help you as a parent, a teacher, as a citizen as a friend.

Freedom is control in your own life. I have more control now than in the past, and I'm learning the value of saying no. That's very important.

Mostly, I'm in the very enviable position that no one dictates what I do.

No one is free who does not lord over himself.

We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces: we become the powerful force ourselves.