Self Determination Quotes

Regardless of the problem, as long as our solution requires someone else to change, we will never know the power and promise of self-determination.

There is no doubt that Iraqis, like Australians and Americans, love and desire freedom. However, if freedom doesn't mean the right to complete self-determination, unfettered by interests other than one's own, then that freedom is less than worthless - it's oppression.

International law says people fighting for self-determination can use force in order to achieve their independence.

But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you choose to retire into yourself.

America was born out of a desire for self-determination, a longing for the human dignity that only independence can bring.

I realized that with hard work, the world was your oyster. You could do anything you wanted to do.

I'll fight when needed, revel when there's an occasion, mourn when there is greif and die if my time comes...But I will not let anyone use me against my will.

Personally, I believe in self-determination, but in the context of one South Africa - so that my self-determination is based in this region, and with my people.

My idea of feminism is self-determination, and it's very open-ended: every woman has the right to become herself, and do whatever she needs to do.

They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.

The Kurdish people have the right of self-determination like every other nation in the world.

I believe that ultimately the situation in Kosovo can only be resolved through self-determination.

The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between the great and the insignificant, its energy - invincible determination - a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory.

Never go backward. Attempt, and do it with all your might. Determination is power.

Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you.

No Marxist can deny that the interests of socialism are higher than the interests of the right of nations to self-determination.

Some people were born to work for others. Not in a mindless, servile-way--rather they simply work better in a set regimen of daily tasks and functions. Others were born of the entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy the demands of self-determination and the roll of the dice.

The real reason Cuba poses a threat has nothing to do with my being here or anyone else being here. It's because Cuba is an example of a country that is actively fighting against imperialist domination and insists on its own right to self-determination and sovereignty.

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.

The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come.

In the course of his long, turbulent career, W. E. B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism...scholarship, propaganda, integration, national self-determination, human rights, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity.

You combine hard work, creativity, and self-determination, and things start to happen.

If a man surrenders all power of self-determination in regard to the profits, management or ownership of the place where he works, he not only loses that special prerogative which marks him off from a cow in a pasture, but what is worse, he loses all capacity for determining any work. This is the beginning of a slavery which sometimes goes by the name of security.

I don't entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me.

I think the Montgomery bus boycott initiated an era of self-determination.

Malcolm X never renounced and never stepped away from a strong commitment to black nationalism and black self-determination. That's absolutely clear if you do any analysis of his speeches.

A man must choose his own way of life, and…it is only by following out one’s own bent that there can be the really harmonious life.” [In an interview conducted by Bram Stoker]

Together, America and the United Kingdom are a beacon for prosperity and the rule of law. That is why the United States respects the sovereignty of the British people and their right of self-determination.

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

Determination is the wake-up call to the human will.

Self-determination could mean independence, confederacy, federal and autonomy.

Self-definition and self-determination is about the many varied decisions that we make to compose and journey toward ourselves, about the audacity and strength to proclaim, create, and evolve into who we know ourselves to be. It’s okay if your personal definition is in a constant state of flux as you navigate the world.

Attack the evil that is within yourself, rather than attacking the evil that is in others.

Gender assignment is a "construction" and yet many genderqueer and trans people refuse those assignments in part or in full. That refusal opens the way for a more radical form of self-determination, one that happens in solidarity with others who are undergoing a similar struggle.

I am a supporter of much of the Arab Spring, as a matter of indigenous self-determination. So, I see the United States' role in Libya as an appropriately restrained one in providing some international support for the work of those trying to bring democratic change against a regime that has undoubtedly been dictatorial, particularly in the past twenty years.

Hitler had a plausible case to argue when he claimed that the Anschluss was only the application of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination.

Black people cannot and will not become integrated into American society on any terms but those of self-determination and autonomy.

Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit. People, worldwide, hunger for the right of self-determination, for those inalienable rights that make for human dignity and progress. America must remain freedom's staunchest friend, for freedom is our best ally and it is the world's only hope to conquer poverty and preserve peace. Every blow we inflict against poverty will be a blow against its dark allies of oppression and war. Every victory for human freedom will be a victory for world peace.

In short, Israel is the measure of our failings and our incompetence. We have waited for a great leader for years, but none came; we have waited for a mighty military victory, but we were defeated roundly; we have waited for outside powers (the United States or, in its time, the Soviet Union), but none came to our aid. The one thing we have not tried in all seriousness has been to rely on OURSELVES: until we do that with a full commitment to success there is no chance that we can advance towards self-determination and freedom from aggression.

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncracy of a living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most successful adaptation to the universal conditions of existence coupled with the greatest possible freedom for self-determination.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

I think Hamas should be challenged to consider really embracing Gandhi and Dr. Kings philosophy of advocating nonviolence as a way to achieve self determination, end occupation, achieve unity within their country, and gain allies within Israel. I think this idea of an eye for and eye, a rocket for a bomb, will never bring about peace for either side.

I am convinced that it is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world. Our involvement in the war in Vietnam has torn up the Geneva Accord. It has strengthened the military-industrial complex; it has strengthened the forces of reaction in our nation. It has put us against the self-determination of a vast majority of the Vietnamese people, and put us in the position of protecting a corrupt regime that is stacked against the poor.

A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.

Self-ruled Taiwan cannot be expected to accept such an affront to the legitimacy of its government and the self-determination of the Taiwanese people.

The acceptance of vertical differentiation with the built-in principle of self-determination must apply on as many levels as possible.

Mengistu does not understand the meaning of self-determination, either historically or in the abstract. He cannot conceive of a nation as anything but an absolute centralized authority, totalitarianism, for his rule is nothing less than that now.

When we speak of peace, we should not mean just the absence of war. True peace rests on the pillars of individual freedom, human rights, national self-determination, and respect for the rule of law.

We prefer world law in the age of self-determination to world war in the age of mass extermination.