“When my crowns are gone, if Sir Timothy refuses, I hope to be able to support myself by my writings and mine own Shelley’s MSS.”

Showing her determination to maintain herself through her literary work despite financial uncertainty. · Letter to Maria Gisborne, 17 September 1822

• Independence
• Money
• Writing

“You will do what he wants: he will not do what you want.”

Illustrating the power of someone who cannot be bought or intimidated. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Character
• Independence
• Power

“You may meet that man on your farm, in your village, or in your legislature.”

Suggesting that moral independence can appear in every sphere of ordinary life. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Character
• Independence
• Society

“You will find that you have no weapon in your armoury with which you can attack him; no argument with which you can appeal to him.”

Describing the unusual strength of someone who cannot be controlled through material incentives. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Character
• Independence
• Power

“The man who does not want money is the one whom money does not dominate.”

A concise expression of the freedom that comes from independence from wealth. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Freedom
• Independence
• Money

“I would like you better to be that man, because from the lower point of view it doesn’t pay to be obsessed by the desire of wealth for wealth’s sake.”

Encouraging independence from material ambition. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Independence
• Money
• Values

“Watch him closely, for he will presently demonstrate to you that money dominates everybody except the man who does not want money.”

Arguing that freedom from greed can be a form of power. · Speech, Values in Life, 1907

• Freedom
• Independence
• Money

“I have never forgiven a still cherished and charming friend for calling his tale a medicated novel.”

A good-humoured but firm objection to a reductive description of his novel · Letter concerning Elsie Venner

• Criticism
• Independence
• Writing

“I am not cross — only more set in my ways, as I have a right to be.”

A cheerful defence of the privileges of age and established habits · Letter, The Victim of Correspondents

• Age
• Humour
• Independence

“I cut the Phi Beta Kappa and the Alumni meetings this year.”

A practical example of his withdrawal from ceremonial obligations · Letter, The Victim of Correspondents

• Independence
• Privacy
• Rest

“I cannot help it. I cannot tell what she will think, — but I cannot help it.”

A candid expression of determination when choosing medicine as his profession · Letter to Phineas Barnes, 1830

• Choice
• Courage
• Independence

“Long afterwards, when the article was reprinted, I altered it back again, as it was at first.”

A small but telling example of his insistence on restoring his intended wording · Letter, August 19, 1882

• Independence
• Precision
• Writing

“I am not aware that I have arrayed myself against any of the Causes to which you refer.”

A measured opening to a candid defence of his political independence and opinions · Letter to James Russell Lowell, November 29, 1846

• Independence
• Opinions
• Politics

“I have got tired of appearing on public occasions.”

A frank statement of his growing preference for private life over public appearances · Letter, The Victim of Correspondents

• Independence
• Privacy
• Solitude

“It is enough for me, and I do not want to plague myself with pumping up patriotism and pouring it into stanzas.”

His humorous resistance to the expectation that he should turn every public occasion into verse · Letter, The Victim of Correspondents

• Independence
• Poetry
• Writing

“No self-respecting person wants to stay in Ireland. Instead he will run from it.”

The deliberately blunt formulation captures Joyce’s early philosophy of exile. · Lecture, Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages, 1907

• Choice
• Exile
• Independence

“The artist should be a passive rather than an active member of the State, having at his disposal the agency of beauty and not politics.”

Joyce argues for the autonomy of art from direct political action. · Political and critical writing

• Art
• Independence
• Politics

“No self-respecting person wants to stay in Ireland. Instead he will run from it, as if from a country that has been subjected to a visitation by an angry Jove.”

A provocative justification of emigration and intellectual exile. · Lecture, Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages, 1907

• Exile
• Independence
• Ireland

“There were men who would not be disciples... to not be a disciple meant to be either an abrupt and emphatic individuality or nothing.”

Reflecting on the fierce independence required of an artist standing outside established movements · Biography, James Joyce: His First Forty Years

• Art
• Independence
• Individuality

“The greatest luxury in life is to be able to do what you like, when you like, and how you like.”

Celebrating independence and the freedom to shape one’s own life · Commonly attributed remark

• Freedom
• Independence
• Life

“Custom is the plague of wise men and the idol of fools.”

Warning against blind conformity and unthinking obedience to tradition · Essay, Of Liberty

• Convention
• Independence
• Wisdom

“I don't think I should ask them a favour for myself or my own family.”

Scruple about using his consular position · Letter to his wife, Glasgow, September 5, 1884

• Independence
• Pride

“The great man is he who hath nothing to fear and nothing to hope from another.”

Defining greatness as complete self-sufficiency and inner freedom · Imaginary Conversations

• Character
• Greatness
• Independence

“And, Mr. Sneering Critic, you certainly cannot disturb my peace of mind with your gibes and taunts unless you have my co-operation.”

Arguing that criticism gains power only when one allows it to do so · Prose writing quoted in Outlook and Independent, 1930

• Criticism
• Independence
• Peace