Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Henry David Thoreau was an oddball job quitter and ne'er-do-well who evolved into the bearded sage of literature, natural history, and civil liberties.

I have been very independent from day I arrived in Washington.

I have always been independent.

There is no such thing as being too independent.

I was always an independent, even when I had partners.

I guess I'm just fiercely independent.

Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.

I've been independent all of my life.

The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, "If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils." Said Diogenes, "Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.

There is an intense but simple thrill in setting off in the morning on a mountain trail, knowing that everything you need is on your back. It is a confidence in having left the inessentials behind and of entering a world of natural beauty that has not been violated, where money has no value, and possessions are a dead weight. The person with the fewest possessions is the freest. Thoreau was right.

I like to move around. I travel. I've driven across country by myself.

The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.

Once you've tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it. Then, you can be more powerful than a whole country.

[on Thoreau:] For not a particle of respect had he to the opinions of any man or body of men, but homage solely to truth itself.

Stay free of petty jealousies, live by no man's code, and hold your judgment for yourself, lest you wind up on this road.

You must accept the fact that there is no help but self-help. I cannot tell you how to gain freedom since freedom exists within you.

If America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers, and artists, then the rich would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor to rule: That was the American dream.

I'd rather hop freights around the country and cook my food out of tin cans over wood fires, than be rich and have a home or work.

None of us here in Washington knows all or even half of the answers ... If you love your country, don't depend on handouts from Washington for your information. If you cherish your freedom, don't leave it all up to big government.

The secret point of money and power in America is neither the things that money can buy nor power for power's sake... but absolute personal freedom, mobility, privacy. It is the instinct which drove America to the Pacific, all through the nineteenth century, the desire to be able to find a restaurant open in case you want a sandwich, to be a free agent, live by one's own rules.

Well, father, in the shipwreck of life, for life is an eternal shipwreck of our hopes, I cast into the sea my useless encumbrance, that is all, and I remain with my own will, disposed to live perfectly alone, and, consequently, perfectly free. (Eugenie to her father)

I feel like an independent man, and I am. This is the kind of feeling I always wanted. You can rarely get that... Well, I could rarely get that in the early part of my life.

I've always stood on my own two. I don't need a team. I don't do the entourage thing, 30 people. I don't do that. That's just not me.

I don't need nobody tryin' to make me over -- I just wanna live simple and free.

Figuring things out for yourself is the only freedom anyone really has. Use that freedom.