Individuality Quotes

No one can transcend their own individuality.

The ideal man is his own best friend and takes delight in privacy.

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do. If a personality fascinates me, whatever mode of expression that personality selects is absolutely delightful to me.

I hate the idea that you ought to read the whole of anybody.

I dote on myself. There is a lot of me and all so luscious.

He must understand that if he is the world's finest plum and someone he loves does not like plums, he has the choice of becoming a banana. But he must be warned that if he chooses to become a banana, he will be a second rate banana. But he can always be the best plum.

But she is happiest alone. She is happiest alone.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

It is not that the girl is unfit for everything, it is that she is not of this world.

One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and on the other hand one cannot be a good historian of this inner life without taking into account outward events where these are relevant.

The individual who has experienced solitude will not easily become a victim of mass suggestion.

I make my protein drink with whiskey. People think I'm crazy, but that's the way I am. I get stoned, I do my own thing.

The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.

I'm so glad for the dozens of times I haven't listened along the way.

A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man's crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.

I hear therefore with joy whatever is beginning to be said of the dignity and necessity of labor to every citizen. There is virtue yet in the hoe and the spade, for learned as well as for unlearned hands. And labor is everywhere welcome; always we are invited to work; only be this limitation observed, that a man shall not for the sake of wider activity sacrifice any opinion to the popular judgments and modes of action.

For the most part we stupidly confound one man with another. The dull distinguish only races or nations, or at most classes, but the wise man, individuals.

She's beautiful,' he murmured. 'She's a metre across the hips, easily,' said Julia. 'That is her style of beauty,' said Winston.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes?

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.

It is bad enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but it is worse that no man is fit for society who has fine traits.He is admired at a distance, but he cannot come near without appearing a cripple.

Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

In loneliness, the lonely one eats himself; in a crowd, the many eat him. Now choose.

These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of everyone of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

That's really a part of my nature , it goes along with autonomy and independence of action - it's just that I don't identify with the local group, no matter what it is, whether it's the human species or the American democracy, the nation, the country, religions, political parties, nothing. None of these have my allegiance because I'm not really concerned with what they do. I don't feel a part of any of this.

Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it - a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.

Be yourself. The world worships the original.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

The potential beauty of human life is constantly made ugly by man's ever recurring song of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever rising tides of revenge. Man has never risen above the injunction of the lex talionis: "Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." In spite of the fact that the law of revenge solves no social problems, men continue to follow its disastrous leading. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path.

Build therefore your own world.

It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.

Whoever regards human beings as a herd and flees them as swiftly as he can will no doubt be overtaken by them and impaled on theirhorns.

Biography, too, is liable to the same objection; it should be autobiography. Let us not, as the Germans advise, endeavor to go abroad and vex our bowels that we may be somebody else to explain him. If I am not I, who will be?

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

The intellectual is always showing off,the lover is always getting lost.The intellectual runs away.afraid of drowning;the whole business of loveis to drown in the sea.Intellectuals plan their repose;lovers are ashamed to rest.The lover is always alone.even surrounded by people;like water and oil, he remains apart.The man who goes to the troubleof giving advice to a loverget nothing. He's mocked by passion.Love is like musk. It attracts attention.Love is a tree, and the lovers are its shade.

There is no greater privilege in life than being yourself.

It is the individual's task to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet. All collective identities . . . interfere with the fulfillment of this task. Such collective identities are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible. . . .

I don't want to please everybody. I'd get a little worried if I did something and everybody was pleased with it.

Absolute passion cannot be understood by a third party.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

Philosophical systems are wholly true for their founders only.

I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowled

That truth which you swallow from others will not be yours...you have to realize truth and work it our for yourself according to your own nature...All must struggle to be individuals-strong, standing on your own feet, thinking your own thoughts, realizing you own Self. No use swallowing doctrines others pass on-standing up together like soldiers in jail, sitting down together, all eating the same food, all nodding their heads at the same time. Variation is the sign of life. Sameness is the sign of death.

I have always had a curious nature; I enjoy learning, but I dislike being taught.

Honor's thoughtReigns solely in the breast of every man.

Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.

You have to be odd to be number one.

True, it is evil that a single man should crush the herd, but see not there the worse form of slavery, which is when the herd crushes out the man.

The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves or have listened only to their neighbors to learn what they ought to do, how they ought to behave, and what the values are they should be living for.

There is an original inside me.

I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.

No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.

I worry about my judgment when anything I believe in or do regularly begins to be accepted by the American public.

Certain faults are necessary to the individual if he is to exist.

I don't have to be what you want me to be.

I like it that we all get to choose differently.

You are constantly invited to be what you are.