Do It Yourself Quotes

A great maxim of personal responsibility and mature achievement: "Do it yourself" is now the enthroned cliche for being occupied with nonessentials. ~ Louis Kronenberger

Make your choices well, my mom had said. It was what she thought she hadn't done, what she hoped above everything I'd do differently. On the flip side, though, there was Clyde, telling me that there were second chances, even-and especially- when you've given up all hope of them. But maybe, when a life and summer was going so fast, you couldn't wait for fate to punch the time card. You had to do it yourself. ~ Sarah Dessen

Don't beg for treasure; create it for yourself. Don't beg for positions; build one for yourself. ~ Israelmore Ayivor

I liked that you have to sometimes get into a situation that might not be a comfortable one - so, overcome your fear and good things will happen - if you want someone to know something, or you have to really take charge and do it yourself and go for it. With the Boxtrolls, they want people to know they're not mean guys, but they're too scared to show anyone. They have to eventually work up the courage to show that and gain the confidence. ~ Elle Fanning

Although one may direct the future or past through the onerous linkages of temporal cause and effect, riding the breaking waves of the present and never once overstepping it, the better way is to go there and do it yourself. ~ Mary-Jean Harris

A greater sense of do-it-yourself (DIY) politics is exposed by the fact Cascadians are more likely to disagree that "voting is the only way people like me can have a say about how the government runs things" (54 percent disagree versus 37 percent, RoNA). ~ Douglas Todd

Feel sorry for yourself.
Sure, your tiny steel-ribbed mother told you never to do that,
But who the hell is going to do it for you?
"Piangi, piangi," the old man in the opera tells Violetta.
"Cry, honey, cry." Do it right.
Do it yourself. ~ Lise Menn

You can't do anything unless you do it yourself. And usually you can't do it yourself very well. ~ E.W. Howe

Wear a towel instead of a coat, it's very chic. Or your husband's boxer shorts with a belt, or something from your grandmother. It's all about do-it-yourself at the moment. ~ Vivienne Westwood

I don't think I would ever write a book with what anybody could call pornography in it, because I feel that pornography is a cheat. It is an attempt to provide sexual experience by secondhand means. Now sex is a thing which has to be experienced firsthand, if you are really going to understand it, and pornography is rather like trying to find out about a Beethoven symphony by having somebody tell you about it and perhaps hum a few bars. It's not the same thing. Sex is primarily a question of relationships. Pornography is a do-it-yourself kit
a twenty-second best. ~ Robertson Davies

Every advance in information technology involves choosing what you want to preserve and what you want to ditch. Scanning rare books on to microfilm is a costly business. The library won't let you do it yourself - they decide first which books should be scanned and which should just rot away in the basement.
Against that eventuality, people should start hoarding the kind of books committees of rational people will decide against scanning into a database. ~ Robert Twigger

There is no other complex field in our society in which do-it-yourself beats out factory production or market production. Nobody makes his or her own car. But it is still the case that parents can perform the job of educating their children [homeschooling], in many cases better than our present education system. ~ Milton Friedman

We could be the biggest pantyhose seller in America, but we don't want to weaken the link in shoppers' minds between Home Depot and do-it-yourself projects. ~ Bernard Marcus

If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen. ~ Desiderius Erasmus

If you want something done right, do it yourself. ~ Charles-Guillaume Etienne

Ask yourself the question: If I don't do it, who will? If you find the answer is no one will do it, then do it yourself. ~ Omar Saif Ghobash

Optimists are intrinsically happier and happiness breeds further happiness. Light a candle rather than curse the darkness and do not wait for someone else to light it; do it yourself. ~ Natasha Murtagh

You don't expect the goat to hatch the hen's eggs. People do what they know very well. Don't expect someone who doesn't know what you know to do it for you. Do it yourself. ~ Israelmore Ayivor

I've rarely kept my distance from kind of - I don't know if we can call it politics, but kind of, civic engagement and that kind of thing, except I tended to think, 'Well, do it yourself before you start telling other people what they should be doing.' ~ David Byrne

Nobody's going to do your life for you. You have to do it yourself, whether you're rich or poor, out of money or raking it in, the beneficiary of ridiculous fortune or terrible injustice. And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard. No matter what unjust, sad, sucky things befall you. Self-pity is a dead-end road. You make the choice to drive down it. It's up to you to decide to stay parked there or to turn around and drive out. ~ Cheryl Strayed

It's funny, everything is so much easier when you do it yourself. ~ Carine Roitfeld

Can't trust no one else to do what you won't do for yourself. ~ Peter V. Brett

As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of 'do it yourself.' ~ Marshall McLuhan

You can find a lot of reasonable buys at Wal-Mart. But one key to making it on a budget is by donating your time and labor to the project. Do-it-yourself projects will always help you save. ~ Nate Berkus

You can't always wait for someone else to do the right thing when you can do it yourself. ~ Mariana Zapata

Buy less, choose well & do it yourself! ~ Vivienne Westwood

Letter from Mr. B:
Why does a back scratch feel better coming from somebody else than if you do it yourself? ~ Jerry Spinelli

There is such an advantage to self-releasing. If you can do it yourself, it's the best way to go. In Europe and the rest of world outside the U.S., I have licensed my music to labels. But it's amazing because I still own all the masters. I didn't have to give up any of those rights. I have 100 percent creative control. ~ Lindsey Stirling

If it has to be done, you have to do it yourself. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

You need to remember the best legacy you can give your kids is an example of a life well lived. They may listen to what you say, but they will do what you do. If you tell them to take care of yourself but you don't do it yourself, what kind of message are you sending? ~ Brooke Castillo

You just have to have the guidance to lead you in the direction until you can do it yourself. ~ Tina Yothers

My parents are very conservative. They taught me the value of hard work - don't depend on other people, do it yourself. ~ Kyrsten Sinema

You're going to have to make your own fortune. You've been given a lot of challenge. No one is going to help you or save you. You're going to have to do it yourself. ~ Sunshine O'Donnell

In newspapers, magazines and on television, the public has been warned off the very vitamins and other supplements that have been repeatedly proven to reduce illness in practically every instance. The effective use of food supplements and natural diet saves money, pain and lives... and you have been told not to do it. If you want something done right you have to do it yourself. This especially includes your healthcare. One of the most common questions about vitamin therapy is, are huge doses safe? This book will help answer that question once and for all, and while we are at it, here's the answer in advance. Yes. Megadoses of vitamins are very safe. Vitamins do not cause even one death per year. Pharmaceutical drugs, taken as directed, cause over 100 000 deaths annually. Still it is granted that we need access to all the tools that medicine and technology can provide, when used with caution. We must also fully use our natural resources of therapeutic nutrition and vitamins. To limit ourselves to pharmaceutical medicine is like going into the ring to fight the champ with one hand tied behind our backs. ~ Andrew W. Saul

No one else is going to do it for you, if you want it bad enough then go out and do it yourself. ~ Ed Sheeran

We didn't have time to get you an actual haircut," she said. "Seriously, did you do it yourself? Maybe without a mirror?"
I put a hand up to my head self-consciously and said, "I had some help from the General. And, hey, I didn't say anything about your man-shoes."
"They're steel-toed," she said calmly. "In case I need to plant them in anyone's ass as a result of him calling them man-shoes. And seriously, you let Toot help you with your hair? ~ Jim Butcher

I'm always gonna be crazy about dishes in the sink. Crazy! Because it's a sign of disrespect. It says that you think someone else is going to clean up after you: that you're not prepared to do it yourself. ~ Lara Logan

This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don't have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. And I do believe that if your culture or tradition doesn't have the specific ritual you are craving, then you are absolutely permitted to make up a ceremony of your own devising, fixing your own broken-down emotional systems with all the do-it-yourself resourcefulness of a generous plumber/poet. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

Christianity is not a do-it-yourself thing. ~ Jerry Bridges

There is no better insurance than the knowledge of how to do something the right way. There is no greater peace of mind than knowing you did it the right way. ~ Jerry G. West

If you want to be productive, follow leads and dig. Whether it is for oil, gold or information, it requires action - your action. Question authority. Do it yourself. ~ Andrew Saul

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you. ~ Alice Walker

I always believe that ideas are like shooting stars when you have one make it happen and not just wish. ~ Roberto Llamas

Hospitality is a wonderful and rare thing, but if you wanna get a lady's attention, you don't send one of your lackeys to ask her over, you do it yourself. ~ K'wan

The stunt guys are absolutely brilliant, but all this stuff [a scene] always looks better when you do it yourself. ~ Dominic Cooper

Nobody's going to save you. No one's going to cut you down, cut the thorns thick around you. No one's going to storm the castle walls nor kiss awake your birth, climb down your hair, nor mount you onto the white steed. There is no one who will feed the yearning. Face it. You will have to do, do it yourself. ~ Gloria E Anzaldua

There are times where you can't do it yourself and the system takes over, or it's appropriate to do things differently. But I think driving your son and your wife away from hospital was really important to me. ~ Prince William

The "do-it-yourself" rage is spreading everywhere, and people are being told that to be happy all they have to do is think "happy thoughts." Such thoughts might cheer us, but they will never change us. ~ Billy Graham

Nevertheless, some free time remains. What's to be done? How do you use your time? In dedicating yourself to helping people? But basically other people don't interest you. Listening to records? That used to be a solution, but as the years go by you have to say that music moves you less and less. Taken in its widest sense, a spot of do-it-yourself can be a way out. But the fact is that nothing can halt the ever-increasing recurrence of those moments when your total isolation, the sensation of an all-consuming emptiness, the foreboding that your existence is nearing a painful and definitive end all combine to plunge you into a state of real suffering. And yet you haven't always wanted to die. You ~ Michel Houellebecq

The most important guideline when it comes to argument is the golden rule. If someone were addressing your point, what tone, what overall approach would you find persuasive and want her to use? Whatever that is, do it yourself. ~ Barry Eisler

I have always enjoyed do-it-yourself projects, .. Being in a position to actually help design and bring tools to market is an incredible opportunity. Being able to fund charities as a result is phenomenal. ~ Tim Allen

If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This especially includes your health care. ~ Andrew Saul

Narcissistic fathers leave their daughters with deep doubts about whether a man can love them, since the first important man in their life was so in love with himself that he had no love left for them. If you are a daughter of a narcissistic father you may have withdrawn from men and bound yourself to mother, either overtly or emotionally. Or you may be engaged in a self-destructive attempt to be his kind of girl, whatever that is, as you try desperately to extract his love. Perhaps you have transferred this into a masochistic position with other men, finding a narcissistic man incredibly attractive as you try to master the mystery of winning his love. And narcissistic men appeal to you because you wish you could be that way yourself - assertive, not giving a damn, self-important - but you lack the confidence to do it yourself so you identify with the man who has their quality, even if it's at your expense. (I have often seen this revealed in those instances where a woman has suffered through a degradingly submissive and abusing relationship with a man, or a series of men, and then, gaining the strength to break that kind of bondage, violently overturns the tables and abuses that man, or the next man in her life, as degradingly as she was misused. It's not just revenge, but the release of hidden desire to be powerful and to be able to control father and make him beg for her love.) ~ Howard M. Halpern

The affiliation clause in our Constitution is a privilege: a courtesy to a sympathetic body. Were you not a Mason, or Co-Mason, you would have to be proposed and seconded, and then examined by savage Inquisitors, and then - probably - thrown out on the garbage heap. Well, no, it's not as bad as that; but we certainly don't want anybody who chooses to apply. Would you do it yourself, if you were on the Committee of a Club? The O.T.O. is a serious body, engaged on a work of Cosmic scope. You should question yourself: what can I contribute? ~ Aleister Crowley

Although the typist has disappeared, her work has not: now you do it yourself ... Since most companies have reduced the managerial ranks, there are fewer and fewer bosses, so you become a manger, his boss, and his secretary all rolled into one. ~ Corinne Maier

looks like i'm gonna do everything myself
maybe i could use some help but hell,
you want something done right you gotta do it yourself
maybe life is up and down but my life's been (what?)
till now i crawled up your butt somehow and that's
when things got turned around i used to be alive
now i feel pathetic and now i get it what's done is done you just leave it alone
and don't regret it but sometimes,
some things turn into dumb things
and that's when you put your foot down.
why did i have to go and meet somebody like you (like you)
why did you have to go and hurt somebody like me (like me)
how could you do somebody like that?
(like that) hope you know that i'm never coming back (never coming back) ~ Limp Bizkit

It is a do-it-yourself era: health care, real estate, police investigation. Go online and f*ing figure it out for yourself because everyone's overworked and understaffed. ~ Gillian Flynn

If no one's doing the creative work that you want to do, do it yourself. ~ Kate Baldwin

Finally, if you're as exasperated as I am by the parts problem and have some money to invest, you can take up the really fascinating hobby of machining your own parts. [ ... ] With the welding equipment you can build up worn surfaces with better than original metal and then machine it back to tolerance with carbide tools. [ ... ] If you can't do the job directly you can always make something that will do it. The work of machining a part is very slow, and some parts, such as ball bearings, you're never going to machine, but you'd be amazed at how you can modify parts designs so that you can make them with your equipment, and the work isn't nearly a slow or frustrating as a wait for some smirking parts man to send away to the factory. And the work is gumption building, not gumption destroying. To run a cycle with parts in it you've made yourself gives you a special feeling you can't possibly get from strictly store-bought parts. ~ Robert M. Pirsig

There´s nothing good about watching another man claim your ship because your skin is to dark to do it yourself. ~ Mackenzi Lee

If you're doing something outside of dominant culture, there's not an easy place for you. You will have to do it yourself. ~ Ava DuVernay

Life is a do-it-yourself kit, so do it yourself. Work. Practice. ~ Phyllis Diller

If you drain others energy a lot, you don't want to see this because you do it yourself; but remember, it's real easy to manipulate a manipulator. ~ Frederick Lenz

Do not wait for someone to Motivate you; Consider it as a self service and do it yourself. ~ Mohith Agadi

The problem is, it's just not enough to live according to the rules. Sure, you manage to live according to the rules. Sometimes it's tight, extremely tight, but on the whole you manage it. Your tax papers are up to date. Your bills paid on time. You never go out without your identity card (and the special little wallet for your Visa!).
Yet you haven't any friends.
The rules are complex, multiform. There's the shopping that needs doing out of working hours, the automatic dispensers where money has to be got (and where you so often have to wait). Above all there are the different payments you must make to the organizations that run different aspects of your life. You can fall ill into the bargain, which involves costs, and more formalities.
Nevertheless, some free time remains. What's to be done? How do you use your
time? In dedicating yourself to helping people? But basically other people don't interest you. Listening to records? That used to be a solution, but as the years go by you have to say that music moves you less and less.
Taken in its widest sense, a spot of do-it-yourself can be a way out. But the fact is that nothing can halt the ever-increasing recurrence of those moments when your total isolation, the sensation of an all-consuming emptiness, the foreboding that your existence is nearing a painful and definitive end all combine to plunge you into a state of real suffering.
And yet you haven't always wanted to die.
You have had a l ~ Michel Houellebecq

There are no accomplished golf tour operators in Indonesia, so a golf holiday there is a do-it-yourself operation. But don't let that deter you. ~ Raymond Bonner

l'after-shave, le badge, le barbeque, le best-seller, le blue-jean, le blues, le bluff, le box-office, le break, le bridge, le bulldozer, le business, le cake, la call-girl, le cashflow, le check-in, le chewing-gum, le club, le cocktail, la cover-girl, le cover-story, le dancing, le design, le discount, le do-it-yourself, le doping, le fan, le fast-food, le feedback, le freezer, le gadget, le gangster, le gay, le hall, le handicap, le hold-up, le jogging, l'interview, le joker, le kidnapping, le kit, le knock-out, le label, le leader, le look, le manager, le marketing, le must, les news, le parking, le pickpocket, le pipeline, le planning, le playboy, le prime time, le pub, le puzzle, se relaxer, le self-service, le software, le snack, le slogan, le steak, le stress, le sweatshirt, le toaster and le week-end. ~ Alexis Munier

I learned very quickly that if you just go out and make something and maybe fail at it or you just learn how to edit it yourself. I edited my last films. You just do it yourself. You feel so creatively empowered and you're controlling your own destiny as artists. ~ Daryl Wein

But when nobody punishes you, you have to do it yourself, and there's no release date on that. We're always harder on ourselves than any governing body could ever get away with being. ~ Catherine Ryan Hyde

We must give up the silly idea of folding our hands and waiting on God to do everything for us. If God had intended for that, then he would not have given us a mind. Whatever you want in life, you must make up your mind to do it for yourself. ~ Marcus Garvey

When a writer becomes a reader of his or her own work, a lot can go wrong. It's like do-it-yourself dentistry. ~ William Collins

The healthy move to adulthood is toward interdependence, not complete "do-it-yourself" isolation. ~ Daniel J. Siegel

There is nothing good about watching another man claim your ship because your skin is too dark to do it yourself," he says, each word a glancing wound. "So in future, you needn't demand apologies on my behalf. ~ Mackenzi Lee

One hundred percent my mother, who would always say, "If you want something done, do it yourself." She must have said that 100 times to me - as a child, as a young woman, yesterday on the phone. ~ Reese Witherspoon

It's funny how film is the slowest art form to adapt to freedom. It's had freedom all along. It could've done whatever it wanted to. You know the same freedom that do-it-yourself punk and post-punk musicians had in the late 70s and ever since. That's about the time I started getting interested in film, and I assumed that film would be moving along with the other pop culture forms. Its finally done it but it's taken decades for it to catch up just to basement band level. ~ Guy Maddin

Entrepreneurs have a natural inclination to go it alone. While this do-it-yourself spirit can help you move forward, adding an element of collaboration into the mix can make you unstoppable. ~ Leah Busque

If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. ~ C.S. Lewis

A human body in no way resembles those that were born for ravenousness; it hath no hawk's bill, no sharp talon, no roughness of teeth, no such strength of stomach or heat of digestion, as can be sufficient to convert or alter such heavy and fleshy fare. But if you will contend that you were born to an inclination to such food as you have now a mind to eat, do you then yourself kill what you would eat. But do it yourself, without the help of a chopping-knife, mallet or axe, as wolves, bears, and lions do, who kill and eat at once. Rend an ox with thy teeth, worry a hog with thy mouth, tear a lamb or a hare in pieces, and fall on and eat it alive as they do. But if thou had rather stay until what thou eat is to become dead, and if thou art loath to force a soul out of its body, why then dost thou against nature eat an animate thing? There is nobody that is willing to eat even a lifeless and a dead thing even as it is; so they boil it, and roast it, and alter it by fire and medicines, as it were, changing and quenching the slaughtered gore with thousands of sweet sauces, that the palate being thereby deceived may admit of such uncouth fare. ~ Plutarch

The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics. ~ Paul Halmos

The more we sense...our ultimate potential, the more determined we become to achieve it. It's the difference between your mother hounding you to practice the piano and reaching the point where you want to do it yourself. You simply will not be denied the ultimate reward and the joy of the Big Finish. p 90 ~ Sheri Dew

Dialogue with Catholics and other nonevangelical Christians offered some correction to the Church Growth movement's fixation on cultural accommodation and baptism rates. However - save for those few who converted - evangelicals attracted to other Christian traditions have made those traditions their own. They assemble do-it-yourself liturgies from a hodgepodge of monastic prayers and mystics' visions. They lionize medieval dissenters - Celtic monks, or renegade Franciscans - but don't understand their broader Catholic context. Without quite realizing what they have done, evangelicals often use these ancient teachings and practices to confirm, rather than challenge, their own assumptions. History becomes a sidekick to one's twenty-first-century journey with Jesus. ~ Molly Worthen

My mother told me ... if you're going to get anywhere, you're going to have to do it yourself, because no one is going to do it for you. ~ Lance Armstrong

Racing is not football or baseball or basketball where you can do it yourself. If you're good in high school, you just shine. (But in racing) you have to have a family behind you. ~ Trevor Bayne

This is a do-it-yourself test for paranoia: you know you've got it when you can't think of anything that's your fault. ~ Robert M. Hutchins

Buy less, choose well & do it yourself! ~ Vivienne Westwood

The desire to "do more in less time" is not a neutral force in our culture; it is the handmaiden of miserable experts, specialists, and leaders. Not everyone has rushed to become efficient. Something else exists on the periphery: an inefficient utopia, a culture of consensus, collectives, and do-it-yourself ethics. A place where time is not bought, sold, or leased and no clock is the final arbiter of our worth. For many people in North America, the problem is not just poverty but lack of time to do the things that are actually meaningful. This is not a symptom of personal failures but the consequence of a time-obsessed society. Today, desire for efficiency springs from the scarcity model, which is the foundation of capitalism. Time is seen as a limited resource when we get caught up in meaningless jobs, mass-produced entertainment, and – the common complaint of activists – tedious meanings. ~ Curious George Brigade

I suppose you mean to scandalize society by announcing your betrothal to Miss Butterfield tonight."
"Of course," Oliver said, without a trace of irritation. "Unless you'd rather do it yourself. I'm more than happy to hand the office over to you, Gran. Maria and I will just nod and smile while you get all the glory for making the match."
Mercy. Talk about throwing down the gauntlet.
Mrs. Plumtree's mouth fell open. Then snapped shut. When she spoke again, her voice sounded strained, though Maria could have sworn she caught a gleam in the elderly lady's eye. "Perhaps I will. God knows you won't do it properly."
"Go ahead." His eyes said, I dare you.
There was a trace of smugness on his face now, as if he knew he was on the verge of winning.
A tense quiet fell over the carriage. Clearly Mrs. Plumtree and Oliver were each waiting for the other to back down. ~ Sabrina Jeffries

My iCloud keeps telling me to back it up, and I'm like, I don't know how to back you up. Do it yourself. ~ Jennifer Lawrence

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

I looked into studying psychoanalysis, wrote to the governing body and was about to start the year where they psychoanalyse you, four times a week, before you get to do it yourself. I just thought I'd taken the ventriloquism as far as I could. My act is so deconstructive, and I'd made all the monkey jokes anyone wanted to hear. ~ Nina Conti

Women who have managed to get successful normally have had to carve out pretty much their own route for doing it, because there are few roadmaps for how, as a woman, you become successful. You think about having to do it yourself, you carve your own way. Does that relate to being Jewish? ~ Noreena Hertz

Moving lockstep through a series of predictable transitions is no longer a route to personal security. Each man and woman must put together a highly individualized sequence of transitions in and out of school, work, and marriage in order to take advantage of shifting opportunities and respond to unexpected setbacks--a "do-it-yourself biolography. ~ Stephanie Coontz

Goddamn it, do it yourself. You're five hundred years old and you can't use a telephone? Read the directions. What are you, an immortal idiot? ~ Anne Rice

As the editor-in-chief of the do-it-yourself magazine 'Make,' I've met scores of dedicated makers. They come from all walks of life - rich, poor, young, old, male, female, religious, atheist, liberal, conservative. ~ Mark Frauenfelder

The Asterians didn't call themselves anything special, because when everyone else refers to you as the shining people, you really don't have to do it yourself. ~ Anne Ursu

The punk-rock ethos was "Do it yourself. Anyone can do this. We're not sent from the heavens." ~ Michael Stipe

Instead of telling the world What it is supposed to do, Why don't you immediately do it yourself? In this way, I assure you, Your happiness will be surprisingly multiplied. ~ Sri Chinmoy

If you want something done, you sure as hell better do it yourself. ~ Rachel Van Dyken

Watching great people do what you love is a good way to start learning how to do it yourself. ~ Amy Poehler

You can't trust other people. If it's important, you have to do it yourself. ~ Neil Gaiman