Selected self reliance quotes

1. You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

2. In this world him who does not abandon himself the Almighty will not desert. Him who helps himself will the Almighty always also help; He will show him the way by which he can gain his rights, his freedom, and therefore his future.

3. God helps only those who are prepared and determined to help themselves.

4. Don't leave home without your sword - your intellect.

5. A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.

6. The important thing isn't the house. It's the ability to make it. You carry that in your brains and in your hands, wherever you go... It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhere else.

7. I don't know if God would agree with me, but believing in God is kind of unimportant when compared to believing in yourself. Because if you go with the idea that God gave you a mind and an ability to judge things, then he would want you to believe in yourself and not worry about believing in him. By believing in yourself you will come to the conclusion that will point to something.

8. Our mind is all we've got. Not that it won't lead us astray sometimes, but we still have to analyze things out within ourselves.

9. What I do is based on powers we all have inside us; the ability to endure; the ability to love, to carry on, to make the best of what we have - and you don't have to be a 'Superman' to do it.

10. You must try to generate happiness within yourself. If you aren't happy in one place, chances are you won't be happy anyplace.

11. Chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands.

12. It's past parsons to console us: No, nor no doctor fetch for me: I can die without my bolus; Two of a trade, lass, never agree! Parson and Doctor!--don't they love rarely Fighting the devil in other men's fields! Stand up yourself and match him fairly: Then see how the rascal yields!

13. Never build your emotional life on the weaknesses of others.

14. My manner of living is plain and I do not mean to be put out of it. A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready.

15. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.

16. I showed up in L.A. with $500 and a backpack and I stayed at a shelter, so nobody handed me anything. I worked for every single thing that I have.

17. A self-made man may prefer a self-made name.

18. I have urged on woman independence of man, not that I do not think the sexes mutually needed by one another, but because in woman this fact has led to an excessive devotion, which has cooled love, degraded marriage and prevented it her sex from being what it should be to itself or the other. I wish woman to live, first for God's sake. Then she will not take what is not fit for her from a sense of weakness and poverty. Then if she finds what she needs in man embodied, she will know how to love and be worthy of being loved.

19. Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

20. I am never very forward in offering spiritual consolation to any one in distress or disease. I believe that such resources, to be of any service, must be self-evolved in the first instance. I am something of the Quaker's mind in this, and am inclined to wait for the spirit.

21. Let us not depend upon the world for pleasure.

22. One who leans on others cannot serve the God of Truth.

23. Why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything ourselves. We want a Personal God, a Savior or a Prophet to do everything for us.

24. Fortune rarely accompanies anyone to the door.

25. I don't want problems solved for me. I want the fishing rod, not the fish.

26. As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found - in himself.

27. This world is bullshit. And you shouldn't model your life - wait a second - you shouldn't model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we're wearing and what we're saying and everything. Go with yourself. Go with yourself.

28. The strong man is strongest when alone.

29. Pray to God, but row away from the rocks.

30. No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. Learning for instance, to eat when he's hungry and sleep when he's sleepy.

31. I came to office with one deliberate intent: to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society - from a give-it-to-me, to a do-it-yourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of a sit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain.

32. Power is in nature the essential measure of right. Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself. The genesis and maturation of a planet, its poise and orbit, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every animal and vegetable, are demonstrations of the self-sufficing, and therefore self-relying soul.

33. Give all to love; Obey thy heart; Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good fame, Plans, credit, and the muse; Nothing refuse.

34. The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

35. I believe in pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. I believe it is possible - I saw this guy do it once in Cirque du Soleil. It was magical.

36. 'Apartheid - both petty and grand - is obviously evil. Nothing can justify the arrogant assumption that a clique of foreigners has the right to decide on the lives of a majority'

37. You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

38. 'The good man is he who rules himself as he does his own property: his autonomous being is modelled on material power.'

39. No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.

40. Except the Lord built the house they labour in vain. : The truth of that text was proved if one looks at the house of which the foundations were laid in 1918 and which since then has been in building. : The world will not help, the people must help itself. Its own strength is the source of life. That strength the Almighty has given us to use; that in it and through it we may wage the battle of our life.... The others in the past years have not had the blessing of the Almighty-of Him Who in the last resort, whatever man may do, holds in His hands the final decision. Lord God, let us never hesitate or play the coward, let us never forget the duty which we have taken upon us. : We are all proud that through God's powerful aid we have become once more true Germans. ** ** speech, March 1933. [Note, 'Except the Lord built the house, they labour in vain' comes from Psalms 127:1 ]

41. Do not yet see, that, if the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.

42. We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds...A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.

43. These hints, dropped as it were from sleep and night, let us use in broad day. The student is to read history actively and not passively; to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary. Thus compelled, the Muse of history will utter oracles, as never to those who do not respect themselves. I have no expectation that any man will read history aright, who thinks that what was done in a remote age, by men whose names have resounded far, has any deeper sense than what he is doing to-day.

44. Let me assure you, nothing in this life feels better than having the confidence that you can take care of yourself and your family and know that you can continue to grow and excel in your profession and as a person.

45. Well let them take you for a clown And they're bound to bring you down. You got to make it through the world if you can. Think they're doing you wrong But you got here on your own. You got to make it through the world if you can.

46. When a man comes through He must do what he's supposed to do When a man comes through. He can't do what everyone expects him to.

47. We and only we can build our home. It is better to light a candle, than complain endlessly about the darkness all the time.

48. If I were a fatalist, or a mystic, which I decidedly am not, it might be appropriate to say I believe in my lucky star. But I reject 'luck' - I feel every person creates his own 'determinism' by discovering his best aptitudes and following them undeviatingly.

49. I saw he was now and always would be his own man

50. a million thousand hundred nothings seem -we are himself's own self;his very him

51. But let the working man be on his guard against another danger. We live at a time when there is a disposition to think that the Government ought to do this and that and that the Government ought to do everything. There are things which the Government ought to do, I have no doubt. In former periods the Government have neglected much, and possibly even now they neglect something; but there is a danger on the other side. If the Government takes into its hands that which the man ought to do for himself it will inflict upon him greater mischiefs than all the benefits he will have received or all the advantages that would accrue from them. The essence of the whole thing is that the spirit of self-reliance, the spirit of true and genuine manly independence, should be preserved in the minds of the people, in the minds of the masses of the people, in the mind of every member of the class. If he loses his self-denial, if he learns to live in a craven dependence upon wealthier people rather than upon himself, you may depend upon it he incurs mischief for which no compensation can be made.

52. Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

53. Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.

54. ...I am delighted to see how many young boys and girls have come forward to obtain honourable marks of recognition on this occasion,-if any effectual good is to be done to them, it must be done by teaching and encouraging them and helping them to help themselves. All the people who pretend to take your own concerns out of your own hands and to do everything for you, I won't say they are imposters; I won't even say they are quacks; but I do say they are mistaken people. The only sound, healthy description of countenancing and assisting these institutions is that which teaches independence and self-exertion...When I say you should help yourselves- and I would encourage every man in every rank of life to rely upon self-help more than on assistance to be got from his neigbours-there is One who helps us all, and without whose help every effort of ours is in vain; and there is nothing that should tend more, and there is nothing that should tend more to make us see the beneficence of God Almighty than to see the beauty as well as the usefulness of these flowers, these plants, and these fruits which He causes the earth to bring forth for our comfort and advantage.

55. Exercises cultivated self-reliance - the foundation of courage.

56. We are ready for any actions on any day, any month or any year. We are ready now. We have a country, we have an army and we are not going to wait for someone to tell us what to do.

57. Obtain from yourself all that makes complaining useless. No longer implore from others what you yourself can obtain.

58. When I want to read a novel, I write one.

59. I never try to tell anybody else what to do, number one. And number two, I think that's what the individual is all about. Each one of us has something to contribute. This really depends on each one doing their own thinking, but not following any kind of rule that I can give out, any command. We're all on the frontier, we're all in a great mystery - incredibly mysterious. Each one possesses exactly what each one is working out, and what each one works out relates to their particular set of circumstances of any one day, or any one place around the world.

60. From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.

61. I'm now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.

62. The working class must be emancipated by the working class. Woman must be given her true place in society by the working class. Child labor must be abolished by the working class. Society must be reconstructed by the working class. The working class must be employed by the working class. The fruits of labor must be enjoyed by the working class. War, bloody war, must be ended by the working class.

63. I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I lead you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.

64. Blessed are those who never entrust their life to no one.

65. Do what you want to do, And go where you're going to. Think for yourself 'Cause I won't be there with you.

66. Try to realize it's all within yourself no one else can make you change, and to see you're only very small and life flows on within you and without you.

67. We must introduce a new balance in the relationship between the individual and the government - a balance that favors greater individual freedom and self-reliance.

68. Barbara wrote that his brain frightened her. It was sharp and clear and cruel. She admired him for being always unsentimental, but noted 'always remember to rely on yourself ... if you are in a sticky place he will be so interested in noting your reactions that he will probably forget to rescue you.'

69. When you know that you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.

70. He chose to be rich by making his wants few, and supplying them himself. In his travels, he used the railroad only to get over so much country as was unimportant to the present purpose, walking hundreds of miles, avoiding taverns, buying a lodging in farmers' and fishermen's houses, as cheaper, and more agreeable to him, and because there he could better find the men and the information he wanted. There was somewhat military in his nature not to be subdued, always manly and able, but rarely tender, as if he did not feel himself except in opposition. He wanted a fallacy to expose, a blunder to pillory, I may say required a little sense of victory, a roll of the drum, to call his powers into full exercise.

71. A man who must separate himself from his neighbours' habits in order to be happy, is in much the same case with one who requires to take opium for the same purpose. What we want to see is one who can breast into the world, do a man's work, and still preserve his first and pure enjoyment of existence.

72. He who has made great moral progress ceases to pray.

73. If I had stayed for other people to make my tools and things for me, I had never made anything.

74. You can take care of yourself, and God helps those who help themselves.

75. There are people who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.

76. Individualism. Self-reliance. Decentralization. Individual responsibility.

77. I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.

78. Every man is his own doctor of divinity, in the last resort.

79. What has value in their eyes is never what is done for them; it's what they do for themselves.

80. 'Who's gonna come through some magic door and save you, man? Do you know? I do. No one. You drew all you could draw. Only thing you can draw from now on is a fucking gun, because that's all you got left. Just like Balazar.'

81. 'We'd have to go self-service.'

82. 'I'll polish it off myself.'