Stephen Colbert 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.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

A strenuous effort must be made to train young people to think for themselves and take independent charge of their lives.

In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for 'finding himself.' If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.

I didn't really care if I had a coach that much, me personally, because I was brought up to think for myself.

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

You have to find it. No one else can find it for you.

I have found people don't want to be told. That they can figure it out.

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

For me, university was a bit of a rebellious streak. I love teachers but I'm inherently a bit of an anarchist and don't trust you because you're my teacher. Somewhere around my second or third year, I realized as an artist that it's up to us to choose our path, and there's nothing wrong with being given many different tools to put in your tool bag.

I don't believe in legacy. I feel that the 'mega' tag definitely acts as a platform, but after that, it's all on the individual. Legacy does not mean a crown that is passed on; we have to create our own paths.

Write your own part. It is the only way I've gotten anywhere. It is much harder work, but sometimes you have to take destiny into your own hands.

My future is one I must make myself.

You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go.

Fortunately for me, I'm still evolving into the person I'm supposed to be. And though they don't know it yet, and may not come to accept it, I'm done living by their protocols or anyone else's. I'm the only one who will take credit for my successes. And I'm the only one who will take the blame for my mistakes. From now on, I live for me.

None will improve your lot If you yourself do not.

No one can help you if you're stuck in a work. Only you can figure a way out, because only you can see the work's possibilities.

If you want things to be right, you have to do them yourself

The rule for every man is, not to depend on the education which other men have prepared for him-not even to consent to it; but to strive to see things as they are, and to be himself as he is. Defeat lies in self-surrender.

All that can be done for you is nothing to what you can do for yourself.

There is no method except yourself.

We cannot wait for great visions from great people, for they are in short supply. It is up to us to light our own small fires in the darkness.

Everyone's gotta make their own way.

You are your own scriptwriter and the play is never finished, no matter what your age or position in life.

As one goes through life, one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don't move.