#sufficiency

Karou wished she could be the kind of girl who was complete unto herself, comfortable in solitude, serene. But she wasn't. She was lonely, and she feared the missingness within her as if it might expand and...cancel her. She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust. ↗

— Laini Taylor

#self-sufficiency #trust

I should understand the land, not as a commodity, an inert fact to be taken for granted, but as an ultimate value, enduring and alive, useful and beautiful and mysterious and formidable and comforting, beneficent and terribly demanding, worthy of the best of man's attention and care... [My father] insisted that I learn to do the hand labor that the land required, knowing--and saying again and again--that the ability to do such work is the source of a confidence and an independence of character that can come no other way, not by money, not by education. ↗

— Wendell Berry

#land #self-sufficiency #beauty

Change from the inside out involves a steadfast gaze upon our Lord that's life changing because it reflects a deep turning from a commitment to self-sufficiency. Without repentance, a look at Christ provides only the illusion of comfort. ↗

— Larry Crabb

#christ #comfort #repentance #self #sufficiency

[I]n the end this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a Queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin. ↗

— Elizabeth I Tudor

#dignity #freedom #good-governance #government #independence

The store customer, who comes home with a package under his arm has learned nothing, except that a ten dollar bill is a source of power in the market place. The man or woman who has converted material into needed products via tools and skills has matured in the process. ↗

— Helen Nearing

#home

Words of the hero: "I am my fate. ↗

— Marty Rubin

#heroism #self-sufficiency #heroism

Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone. ↗

— Saul Bellow

#happiness #life #reading #self-sufficiency #life

I don't want anyone to look to me, not for protection, not for happiness, not for love, not for anything. ↗

— P.D. James

#love #protection #responsibility #self-sufficiency #solitude

For all those who longed to find a best friend and found it in themselves ↗

— Sandra Kring

#self-sufficiency #self-worth #self-worth

It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong. And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid, but I don’t think I’m a run-of-the-mill person. I’ve been in business without being a businesswoman, I’ve loved without being a woman made only for love. The two men I’ve loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness. I’ve done my best, in regard to people and to life, without precepts, but with a taste for justice. ↗

— Coco Chanel

#bachelorhood #empowerment #freedom #independence #individuality