387 pages
Rating: (880 votes)
“To be nobody but yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you somebody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. — e.e. cummings”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“An individual might say, “I don’t want to change anyone.” And yet, he might still spend a great deal of his time trying to get others to agree with his views, or trying to prevent someone from doing something he thinks will be bad for him, or trying to change people by participating in a movement over a burning issue, or voting to prevent others from doing what they want to do. In all these ways, he’s trying to change others — to make them do other than what their natures lead them to do.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“Things will get better only when you make the changes that are necessary to make them better.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“I’ve concentrated upon the things I control, and used that control to remove the restrictions and complications from my life.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“And when someone accuses you of being selfish, just remember that he’s upset only because you aren’t doing what he selfishly wants you to do.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“I’m free and happy because I accepted myself as I am and found a life that suits me”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“One person devotes his life to helping the poor. Another one lies and steals. Still another person tries to create better products and services for which he hopes to be paid handsomely. One woman devotes herself to her husband and children. Another seeks a career as a singer. In every case, the basic motivation has been the same. Each person is doing what he believes will bring him happiness. What varies between them is the means each has chosen to gain his happiness.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“He doesn’t sacrifice himself for others, nor does he expect others to be sacrificed for him. He takes the third alternative — he finds relationships that are mutually beneficial so that no sacrifice is required.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“The more directly individual rewards are tied to individual achievements, the greater incentive there is to increase one’s individual effort. Joint Efforts”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“Never focus your attention on anyone’s weaknesses — his temper, sloppiness, poor logic, dishonesty, whatever. Recognize these shortcomings, take them into consideration, but don’t waste your time complaining about them. Instead, pay attention to what your actions should be in order to deal with him.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“To be self-reliant is to recognize that no one else is as concerned about your future as you are and that no one knows as much about you as you do.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“There’s no final resting place — short of death — where you can stop having to earn what you want.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“Freedom from exploitation is perhaps the easiest freedom to get. All you have to do is to stop participating in any relationship — of any kind — that doesn’t suit you. It”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“As I lie on my couch by the fireplace, looking out from my hillside home at the snow leading down to the ocean, with the right woman in my arms, a glass of Bordeaux beside me and a Puccini opera on the stereo system, knowing that I’ve earned the pleasure I feel, I’m so glad I didn’t let someone else decide what’s best for me.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“A big philosophical breakthrough for me was the realization that my own freedom was not only possible, but far more important than the establishment of a free society.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“The answer is simple: You are you, the person who will live with the consequences of what you do. No one else can be responsible, because no one else will experience the consequences of your actions as you will.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“you’re wrong, you will suffer for it. If you’re right, you will find happiness. You have to be the one to decide. “Who are you to know?” It’s your future at stake. You have to know. Freedom comes only from seeing the ignorance of your critics and discovering the emptiness of their virtue. — David Seabury”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty
“I shoved three CDs up my ass and got them out of Tower Records. It hurt like hell but I did it. New Michael Bolton, new Sting, and the best of Sammy Hagar. Totally painful. Definitely worth it.”
― Henry Rollins, quote from Eye Scream
“Leo hurried up to bed and hid under the covers. Under the covers he thought his life through. Although he soon fell asleep he could not sleep her out of his mind. He woke, beating his breast. Though he prayed to be rid of her, his prayers went unanswered. Through days of torment he endlessly struggled not to love her; fearing success, he escaped it. He then concluded to convert her to goodness, himself to God. The idea alternately nauseated and exalted him.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Magic Barrel
“modern science hasn’t managed to come up with answers to any of the most basic questions. How did life first appear on earth? How does evolution work? Is it a series of random events, or does it have a set teleological direction? There are all kinds of theories, but we haven’t been able to prove one of them. The structure of the atom is not a miniature of the solar system, it’s something much more difficult to grasp, full of what you might call latent power. And when we try to observe the subatomic world, we find that the mind of the observer comes into play in subtle ways. The mind, my friend! The very same mind which, ever since Descartes, proponents of the mechanistic view of the universe considered subordinate to the body-machine. And now we find that the mind influences observed results. So I give up. Nothing surprises me. I’m prepared to accept anything that happens in this world. I actually kind of envy people who can still believe in the omnipotence of modern science.”
― Kōji Suzuki, quote from Spiral
“All through his life, he swung between the ridiculous and the sublime,”
― Marshall McLuhan, quote from The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects
“He had destroyed and shattered my love only to conquer it again.”
― J.C. Reed, quote from Conquer Your Love
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