Word to describe someone who does whatever they please?

Question

I’m looking for a word that could be used to describe someone that does whatever he wants and doesn't listen to anyone else. Someone like Julius Caesar maybe?

Answer 1

headstrong - Self-willed and obstinate.
e.g.: I am headstrong and like getting my own way.

Answer 2

I’m looking for a word that could be used to describe someone that does whatever he wants and doesn't listen to anyone else. Someone like Julius Caesar maybe?

Words (adjectives) that may be used to describe such persons with a negative subtext would include:

• sociopathic; related to actions (which may be violent or dangerous) that are based on selfish motives without regard to laws or the welfare of others.
• megalomaniacal; of actions that are influenced by a strong sense (often delusional) of omnipotence or grandiose power.
• intransigent; related to action or behavior that is stubborn and intractable and not receptive to reason.
• inexorable; of behavior that is relentless and unchangeable

Answer 3

Also see What do you call a person who does/thinks the opposite of the crowd for just that reason? and How to describe someone who often has his own idea and judgment, where words such as the following are suggested.

• individualist, “Someone who does as they wish, unconstrained to external influences”
• strong-minded, “Having a vigorous, independent will and views”
• self-assertive, “determined to advance one's own personality or views”
• iconoclast, “One who attacks cherished beliefs” (etc.)
• contrarian, “a person who expresses a contradicting viewpoint, especially one who denounces the majority persuasion”
• opinionated, “Holding to one's own opinion obstinately, stubbornly and unreasonably”
• resolute, “Firm, unyielding, determined”

and per FumbleFingers, “nonconformist, renegade, maverick, rebel, radical, individualist, heretic, dissenter, dissident, iconoclast, loner, etc., etc.”

Answer 4

While it may have theological implications, antinomianist summarizes pretty much all you've described. An antinomianist makes the rules up as he goes along--as he sees fit. Antinomianists are a law unto themselves. They embody relativism and situational ethics in equal measure, with an egocentric twist. In short, they are more like Epicureans than Stoics, although you could make a case for Stoics' being against the law of appetites, passions, and pleasure, not wanting to come under the domination of such things. From Greek, anti + nomos, against law.