The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. Rudyard Kipling
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings. William Blake
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good. Thomas Paine
The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive. Ayn Rand
The first of earthly blessings, independence. Edward Gibbon
Independence is essential for permanent but fatal to immediate success. Samuel Butler
To teach a man how he may learn to grow independently, and for himself, is perhaps the greatest service that one man can do another. Benjamin Jowett