Independence Day, 2011

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The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
                        – Emerson, “Self Reliance,” Essays First Series (1841)

The most affluent man is he that confronts all the shows he sees by equivalents out of the stronger wealth of himself.
                        – Walt Whitman, Preface to the “Leaves of Grass” (1855)

Independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong.
                        – Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil” (1886)

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
                        – George Bernard Shaw, “Maxims for Revolutionists,” Man and                         Superman (1903)

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
                        – Einstein, “Out of My Later Years” (1950)