The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

From The Passionate State of Mind by Eric Hoffer.

28

There is a large measure of totalitarianism even in the freest of free societies. But in a free society totalitarianism is not imposed from without but is implanted within the individual. There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.