Matilda Joslyn Gage Quotes

Put it down in capital letters: SELF-DEVELOPMENT IS A HIGHER DUTY THAN SELF-SACRIFICE. The thing that most retards and militates against women’s self development is self-sacrifice.

What does it mean to be an individual? What does it mean to flourish?

I am increasingly an architect of self. I am free to will and choose. I can, through accepting my individuality... become more of my uniqueness, more of my potentiality.

Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control. Stop aspiring to be anyone other than your own best self: for that does fall within your control.

It looks as if there were a single ultimate goal for mankind, a far goal toward which all persons strive. This is called variously by different authors self-actualization, self-realization, integration, psychological health, individuation, autonomy, creativity, productivity, but they all agree that this amounts to realizing the potentialities of the person, that is to say, becoming fully human, everything that person can be.

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

Ultimately, you have to pursue your own path, not someone's idea of the right path. You need to stay on your path.

I like people that define their own values. I am much more interested in somebody who has their own definition of what they value, their own definition of what success is, their own definition of what love is.

A successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one's own path, not chasing after the dreams of others.

My whole career has been trying to please people in basketball. Now it's time to please myself.

Your life is meant for you to understand and process, not to make anyone else happy.

Your life is yours and yours alone. Rise up and live it.

What I wanted to do and what I needed to do was something entirely different, and through reading Roussel I learned that I could do what I wanted all on my own and that I didn't have to rely on what had actually happened in my somewhat limited life and reading.

I want to be in a position where I can function as a human being.

Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.

The best thing we can do is develop our own.

One creates oneself.

I don't like work... but I like what is in work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - which no other man can ever know.

I have a personal philosophy in life: If somebody else can do something that I'm doing, they should do it. And what I want to do is find things that would represent a unique contribution to the world - the contribution that only I, and my portfolio of talents, can make happen. Those are my priorities in life.

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

People get all caught up thinking they have to train a certain way or take a certain approach to things, but there's so much more to this than fitting into what other people think you are supposed to do. You have to have fun and enjoy what you are doing; otherwise, what is it all worth?

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

I want to follow my path.

Like any art, the creation of self is both natural and seemingly impossible. It requires training as well as magic.

How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!