An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.
—Willem de Kooning
My mind's my kingdom.
—Francis Quarles
Don't take my advice. Or anyone's advice. Trust yourself. For good or for bad, happy or unhappy, it's your life, and what you do with it has always been entirely up to you.
—Nicholas Sparks in The Best of Me
You have to choose the life you want. You have to take action and realize that you create your own destiny by making choices and sticking to them.
—Robin Bielman in Wild About Her Wingman
Believe me, I'd go back to the way things were in a minute if I could. But it's just not an option.
—Sarah Dessen in Lock & Key
This is your life—not your parents', teachers' or significant other's. If you ever find yourself on a path that just doesn't feel safe anymore, you have every right to stop the car, get out—change your shoes and start walking.
—Jennifer Elisabeth
The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.
—Albert Ellis
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
—Michel de Montaigne
He was the worst kind of wrong. He was so wrong it felt right, and that made me feel completely out of control.
—Becca Fitzpatrick in Silence
There was only so much worrying you could do before you just had to accept what life throws at you and move on, because some things were going to be out of your control, and others can't be fixed or changed.
—Jenn Bennett in Summoning the Night
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
—Frederick Douglass
Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him.
—Groucho Marx
When we truly discover love, capitalism will not be possible and Marxism will not be necessary.
—Will O'Brien
First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald
The only thing worse than a man you can't control is a man you can.
—Margo Kaufman