#self-determination

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself."

"Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are."

"I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself."

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door"

"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim."

"I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me."

"You cannot change what you are, only what you do."

"I am not an angel,' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate."

"Oh, Lizzy! do anything rather than marry without affection."

"Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are."

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."

"I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives."

"The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself."

"You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!"

"Life is still better than University. In school, your teacher is the fruit picker and you are the open fruit basket. Then you take those fruits and make cakes and pies. But life is going to give you the chance to go out there and pick those fruits yourself. Then you can eat them, or make them into something else; any which way, your own hands picked them!"

"Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all."

"The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position."

"The whole value of solitude depends upon oneself; it may be a sanctuary or a prison, a haven of repose or a place of punishment, a heaven or a hell, as we ourselves make it."

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.(Popular misquote of "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.")"