I am not bound to please thee with my answer.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

I’m not interested in people positioning me next to other artists.

I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.

I have a hard time figuring out what kind of box to put me in, too, because I don’t know exactly what’s going on around me or why. But I need to stay outside of boxes because then I can look at what’s inside of them without being part of them.

I bear a charmed life.

I don’t know if I’ve ever cared much what others think.

If you have fear, you are bound by tradition, you follow some leader or guru. When you are bound by tradition, when you are afraid of your husband or your wife, you lose your dignity as an individual human being.

We are second-hand people. We have lived on what we have been told, either guided by our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment. We are the result of all kinds of influences, and there is nothing new in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves: nothing original, pristine, clear.

The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job.

A song is anything that can walk by itself.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

Love is too young to know what conscience is.

What someone else does or doesn’t do has no effect on me and what I do.

I hated to be treated as a child. I thought it was the worst situation.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

Rituals are important. Nowadays it’s hip not to be married. I’m not interested in being hip.

I have met 18 million youth, and each wants to be unique.

I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It’s just funny.

Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, ‚Truth is the daughter of Time.‘

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

We human beings are strange creatures and still reserve the right to think for ourselves.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

Great men or men of great gifts you shall easily find, but symmetrical men never.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

I mean, I never liked being told what to do. It’s one of the reasons I dropped out of school.

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

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

It is only a man’s own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else’s meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.

You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy’s ranks.

I myself have been on my own and utterly independent since I graduated. I haven’t belonged to any company or any system. It isn’t easy to live like this in Japan.

It’s a good thing we don’t get all the government we pay for.

I like to be myself, and I don’t pretend. For instance, I don’t dress up for occasions; I am what I am.

When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.

People should make up their own mind about what they think of me.

As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.

I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.

The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.

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

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it… I can resist everything but temptation.

I may be no better, but at least I am different.

Temptation is just the feeling that you’re the most independent person on planet Earth. That you know everything. That’s something that we all go through as a kid. Now, this lifestyle that I’m in, the same thing exists! But it’s 10 times worse, because everything is at my disposal. When you’re in the limelight, you can get anything you want.

What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.

I don’t want followers.

‚Born this Way‘ is about being yourself, and loving who you are and being proud.

I’ve always felt quite singular, even as a child. That I must stay on track to keep my purpose.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.

Every man over forty is a scoundrel.

I’m afraid that everything will get homogenized and be the same.

I don’t think I would be interested in the climate at all if I had been like everyone else.

I have always marched to my own beat, and most frequently, it was inconsistent not only with my own immediate family, but with my culture as well.

The indestructible is one: it is each individual human being and, at the same time, it is common to all, hence the incomparably indivisible union that exists between human beings.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

If we are not free, no one will respect us.