In a world where challenges abound and paths to success can seem elusive, self-determination stands as a guiding beacon, lighting the way through the darkness. This intrinsic motivation empowers individuals to take control of their futures, making choices that align with their goals and values. Whether you're at the beginning of a new venture or in the midst of overcoming an obstacle, a little inspiration can go a long way. In this collection, we've gathered 34 self-determination quotes to ignite your inner drive and inspire you to push boundaries. From luminaries in various fields to timeless thinkers, these quotes serve as powerful reminders of the strength that lies within us all.
1. “The joy in life is his who has the heart to demand it.” - Theodore Roosevelt
2. “It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. “Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
4. “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” - Nora Ephron
5. “Always in life an idea starts small, it is only a sapling idea, but the vines will come and they will try to choke your idea so it cannot grow, and it will die and you will never know you had a big idea, an idea so big it could have grown thirty meters through the dark canopy of leaves and touched the face of the sky. The vines are people who are afraid of originality, of new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines; when you are a young plant they are very dangerous. Always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life.” - Bryce Courtenay
6. “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.” - Charlotte Brontë
7. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” - William Shakespeare
8. “A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.” - George Bernard Shaw
9. “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” - Coco Chanel
10. “Best be yourself, imperial, plain, and true.” - Robert Browning
11. “They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them.” - Mahatma Gandhi
12. “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.” - Jane Austen
13. “For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.” - Marcus Aurelius
14. “Woe betide him, and her too, when it comes to things of consequence, when they are placed in circumstances requiring fortitude and strength of mind, if she have not resolution enough to resist idle interference ... It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on. You are never sure of a good impression being durable; everybody may sway it. Let those who would be happy be firm.” - Jane Austen
15. “Now look at me! Take a good look! I was born and I knew I was alive and I knew what I wanted. What do you think is alive in me? Why do you think I'm alive? Because I have a stomach and eat and digest the food? Because I breathe and work and produce more food to digest? Or because I know what I want, and that something which knows how to want—isn't that life itself? And who—in this damned universe—who can tell me why I should live for anything but for that which I want?” - Ayn Rand
16. “I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.” - Abraham Lincoln
17. “It's not what you say out of your mouth that determines your life, it's what you whisper to yourself that has the most power!” - Robert T. Kiyosaki
18. “Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.” - Mae West
19. “She might be without country, without nation, but inside her there was still a being that could exist and be free, that could simply say I am without adding a this, or a that, without saying I am Indian, Guyanese, English, or anything else in the world.” - Sharon Maas
20. “The only life worth living is the one we take responsibility for choosing.” - Alexandra Stoddard
21. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” - Charlotte Brontë
22. “You've already decided what you're going to do, and all that's left is to set the wheels in motion. I mean, it's your life. Basically, you gotta go with what you think is right.” - Haruki Murakami
23. “In reaction against the age-old slogan, "woman is the weaker vessel," or the still more offensive, "woman is a divine creature," we have, I think, allowed ourselves to drift into asserting that "a woman is as good as a man," without always pausing to think what exactly we mean by that. What, I feel, we ought to mean is something so obvious that it is apt to escape attention altogether, viz: (...) that a woman is just as much an ordinary human being as a man, with the same individual preferences, and with just as much right to the tastes and preferences of an individual. What is repugnant to every human being is to be reckoned always as a member of a class and not as an individual person.” - Dorothy L. Sayers
24. “In fact, there is perhaps only one human being in a thousand who is passionately interested in his job for the job's sake. The difference is that if that one person in a thousand is a man, we say, simply, that he is passionately keen on his job; if she is a woman, we say she is a freak.” - Dorothy L. Sayers
25. “One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility” - Eleanor Roosevelt
26. “Why should I care what other people think of me? I am who I am. And who I wanna be.” - Avril Lavigne
27. “Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will” - Jack Welch
28. “If [God] send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening ...” - William Shakespeare
29. “In the end there is nothing to be done but to state clearly what has been done, without shame or regret, and say: Here I am, and this is what I am. Now deal with me as you see fit. That is your right. Mine is to stand by the act, and pay the price.You do what you must do, and pay for it. So in the end all things are simple.” - Ellis Peters
30. “(Response to King Erik XIV of Sweden's proposal of marriage:)"[W]hile we perceive ... the zeal and love of your mind towards us is not diminished, yet in part we are grieved that we cannot gratify your Serene Highness with the same kind of affection. And that indeed does not happen because we doubt in any way of your love and honour, but, as often we have testified both in words and writing, that we have never yet conceived a feeling of that kind of affection towards anyone.We therefore beg your Serene Highness again and again that you be pleased to set a limit to your love, that it advance not beyond the laws of friendship for the present nor disregard them in the future. ... We certainly think that if God ever direct our hearts to consideration of marriage we shall never accept or choose any absent husband how powerful and wealthy a Prince soever. But that we are not to give you an answer until we have seen your person is so far from the thing itself that we never even considered such a thing. I have always given both to your brother ... and also to your ambassador likewise the same answer with scarcely any variation of the words, that we do not conceive in our heart to take a husband but highly commend this single life, and hope that your Serene Highness will no longer spend time in waiting for us.” - Elizabeth I
31. “Choice is the keynote of self-determinism. To determine anything, you must have the choice to determine. Choice to determine means that you must have the power of decision. Decision and time have a lot in common. When we have clean, clear decision, we have clean, clear time. And when we have indecision, there is an unclarity about time.” - L. Ron Hubbard
32. “[In 16th century European society] Marriage was the triumphal arch through which women, almost without exception, had to pass in order to reach the public eye. And after marriage followed, in theory, the total self-abnegation of the woman.” - Antonia Fraser
33. “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!” - C. JoyBell C.
34. “The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.” - Ayn Ranc
