“Why is self-control, autonomy, such a threat to authority? Because the person who controls himself, who is his own master, has no need for an authority to be his master.”

— Thomas Szasz, Ceremonial Chemistry (1974), revised edition 1985, p. 175

About Thomas Szasz

1920 – 2012

Hungarian-American psychiatrist and author of "The Myth of Mental Illness".

“The wise treat self-respect as non-negotiable, and will not trade it for health or wealth or anything else.”

“Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.”

“Anxiety is the unwillingness to play even when you know the odds are for you.”

“Whate'er I may have been, or am, doth rest between Heaven and myself; I shall not choose a mortal to be my mediator.”

“Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.”

“Reciprocity is a matter of keeping the gift in motion through self-perpetuating cycles of giving and receiving.”

“I've found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”

“Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-canceling business; and it gives in the long run a net result of zero.”

“I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths where your life wells forth.”