#Individuality Quotes

“Every subject's duty is the Kings, but every subject's soul is his own.”

“We must every one be a man of his own fancy.”

“I am not in the roll of common men.”

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

“Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are 'cleptAll by the name of dogs: the valued fileDistinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,The housekeeper, the hunter, every oneAccording to the gift which bounteous natureHath in him closed.”

“I had rather be a kitten and cry mew Than one of these same metre ballet-mongers.”

“I will not choose what many men desire, Because I will not jump with common spirits And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.”

“Which can say more than this rich praise, that you alone are you?”

“The private life of one man shall be a more illustrious monarchy,--more formidable to its enemy, more sweet and serene in its influence to its friend, than any kingdom in history. For a man, rightly viewed, comprehendeth the particular natures of all men.”

“Stay at home in your mind. Don't recite other people's opinions.”

“Sanity is very rare; every man almost and every woman has a dash of madness.”

“When a man becomes a conformist, he is sacrificing the richness of independent thinking.”

“The truth, the hope of any time, must always be sought in minorities.”

“The truth, the hope, of any time must be sought in the minorities. Michael Angelo was the conscience of Italy. We grow free with his name, and find it ornamental now, but in his own day his friends were few.”

“When nature removes a great man, people explore the horizon for a successor; but none comes, and none will. His class is extinguished with him. In some other and quite different field, the next man will appear.”

“Congratulate yourself if you have done something strange, extravagant and broken the monotony.”

“Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual”

“A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.”

“The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force.”

“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore it if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.”

“Every chair should be a throne and hold a king.”

“Every man is a new method.”

“I think that the heroism which at this day would make on us the impression of Epaminondas and Phocion must be that of a domestic conqueror. He who shall bravely and gracefully subdue this Gorgon of Convention and Fashion, and show men how to lead a clean, handsome and heroic life amid the beggarly elements of our cities and villages; whoso shall teach me how to eat my meat and take my repose and deal with men, without any shame following, will restore the life of man to splendor, and make his own name dear to all history.”

“A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no lustre as you turn it in your hand until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors. There is no adaptation or universal applicability in men, but each has his special Talent, and the mastery of Successful men consists in adroitly keeping themselves where and when that turn shall be oftenest to be practiced.”

“I believe it is the conviction of the purest men, that the net amount of man and man does not much vary. Each is incomparably superior to his companion in some faculty. His want of skill in other directions, has added to his fitness for his own work.”

“You have a place to live in this world which no other man can occupy; hence no competitors.”

“The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic.”

“Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.”

“I'll neverBe such a gosling to obey instinct, but standAs is a man were author of himselfAnd knew no other kin.”

“Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two men alike. When we see a great man, we fancy a resemblance to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his character and fortune, a result which he is sure to disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his character according to our prejudice, but only in his high unprecedented way.”

“The man for whom the law exists - the man of forms, the conservative - is a tame man.”

“Our expenses are all for conformity.”

“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”

“Self Esteem::"It is very easy in the world to live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. I knew a man of simple habits and earnest character who never put out his hands nor opened his lips to court the public, and having survived several rotten reputations of younger men, honor came at last and sat down with him upon his private bench from which he had never stirred."”

“Each mind has its own method.”

“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

“Let us be poised, wise and our own today.”

“I will not live out of me I will not see with others' eyes My good is good, my evil ill I would be free.”

“Cities force growth and make men talkative and entertaining, but they make them artificial. What possesses interest for us is thenatural of each, his constitutional excellence. This is forever a surprise, engaging and lovely; we cannot be satiated with knowing it, and about it; and it is this which the conversation with Nature cherishes and guards.”

“To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your path, and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest.Always do what you are afraid to do.”

“Every mind has a new compass, a new direction of its own, differencing its genius and aim from every other mind.--We call this specialty the bias of each individual. And none of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.”

“Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.”

“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.”

“You are constantly invited to be what you are.”

“Pay no heed to the average photographer's remarks upon "flat" and "weak" negatives. Probably he is flat, weak, stale, and unprofitable; your negative may be first-rate, and probably is if he does not approve of it.”

“No man can quite emancipate himself from his age and country, or produce a model in which the education, the religion, the politics, usages, and arts, of his times shall have no share.”

“The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now. Greatness appeals to the future.”

“There is no king or sovereign stateThat can fix a hero's rate;Each to all is venerable.”

“Talent finds its models, methods, and ends in society, exists for exhibition, and goes to the soul only for power to work. Genius is its own end, and draws its means and the style of its architecture from within.”

“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.”