assert oneself

It may be needful, on occasion, to assert oneself, or at least one's authority; but it is difficult to do it without sin.

To exist is to assert oneself, to affirm oneself, to love oneself; he to whom life is a burthen rids himself of it.

I believe in such a place as London unless one has resolution to assert oneself people think one is a sort of shadow.

The desire to assert oneself is no less powerful, in the social interplay, than the impulse to submission.

At my age,” she straightened herself proudly, “one must assert oneself!