Conformity Quotes - Page 17

• The longest journey is the journey inward.

  Dag Hammarskjold

  Inspiration, Journey, Inward

  "Markings". Book by Dag Hammarskjold, 1964.

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• ...virtue is not merely a state in conformity with the right principle, but one that implies the right principle; and the right principle in moral conduct is prudence.

  Aristotle

  Principles, Ethics, Moral

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• Better Than You island doesn't exist. And if it does it's full of idiots, looking over their shoulder for the next idiot to arrive.

  David Robert Whitehouse

  Islands, Doe, Next

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• You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone.

  Eric Hoffer

  Clique, Nonconformist, True Believer

  "Reflections on the Human Condition" by Eric Hoffer, (Section 50), 1973.

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• If we suffer persecution and affliction in a right manner, we attain a larger measure of conformity to Christ, by a due improvement of one of these occasions, than we could have done merely by imitating his mercy, in abundance of good works.

  John Wesley

  Christian, Suffering, Affliction

  John Wesley, Bp. John Emory, Thomas Jackson (1831). “The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.: Miscellaneous”, p.525

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• Born originals, how comes it to pass that we die copies? That meddling ape imitation, as soon as we come to years of indiscretion, (so let me speak,) snatches the pen, and blots out nature's mark of separation, cancels her kind intention, destroys all mental individuality. The lettered world no longer consists of singulars: it is a medley, a mass; and a hundred books, at bottom, are but one.

  Edward Young

  Book, Years, Individuality

  Edward Young, John Doran (1854). “The complete works, poetry and prose, of ... Edward Young. Revised [by J. Nichols]. To which is prefixed, a life of the author, by J. Doran”, p.561

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• When a village ceases to be a community, it becomes oppressive in its narrow conformity. So one becomes an individual and migrates to the city. There, finding others like-minded, one re-establishes a village community. Nowadays only New Yorkers are yokels.

  Paul Goodman

  Cities, Community, Village

  Paul Goodman (1966). “Five years”

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• ... he who has independent ideas is hated by the mass[es].

  Shang Yang

  Independent, Ideas, Mass

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• As a good Christian should consider every place as holy, because God is there, so he should look upon every part of his life as a matter of holiness, because it is offered unto God. The profession of a clergyman is a holy profession, because it is a ministration in holy things, an attendance at the alter. But worldly business is to be made holy unto the Lord, by being done as a service unto Him, and in conformity to His Divine will.

  William Law

  Life, Christian, Business

  William Law (1816). “A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life: Adapted to the State and Condition of All Orders of Christians by the Late ... ; to which is Added a Biographical Sketch of the Author”, p.39

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• Being strange is not necessarily bad ... Sometimes it's a person's only redeeming quality.

  Paula Sharp

  Quality, Strange, Sometimes

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• Until we lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.

  Henry Miller

  Self Control, No Hope, Restraint

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• Traditional American values: Genocide, aggression, conformity, emotional repression, hypocrisy, and the worship of comfort and consumer goods.

  George Carlin

  Emotional, Hypocrisy, Comfort

  George Carlin (1998). “Brain Droppings”, Hyperion

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• We must admit that today conformity is on the Left. To be sure, the Right is not brilliant. But the Left is in complete decadence, a prisoner of words, caught in its own vocabulary, capable merely of stereotyped replies, constantly at a loss when faced with truth, from which it nevertheless claimed to derive its laws. The Left is schizophrenic and needs doctoring through pitiless self-criticism, exercise of the heart, close reasoning, and a little modesty.

  Albert Camus

  Heart, Loss, Exercise

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• The pseudo-conscience ... demands not obedience to the inner law of our being, but conformity to super-imposed convention.

  Frances G. Wickes

  Law, Demand, Pseudo

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• Once upon a time there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. And they grew next to each other. And every day the straight tree would look at the crooked tree and he would say, "You're crooked. You've always been crooked and you'll continue to be crooked. But look at me! Look at me!" said the straight tree. He said, "I'm tall and I'm straight." And then one day the lumberjacks came into the forest and looked around, and the manager in charge said, "Cut all the straight trees." And that crooked tree is still there to this day, growing strong and growing strange.

  Tom Waits

  Strong, Cutting, Tree

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• What is originality? To see something that has no name as yet and hence cannot be mentioned although it stares us all in the face. The way men usually are, it takes a name to make something visible for them.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Men, Names, Way

  The Gay Science bk. 3, sec. 261 (1882) (translation by Walter Kaufmann)

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• There is such a thing as caste, even in the West; but it is comparatively faint; it is conservatism here. It says, forsake not your calling, outrage no institution, use no violence, rend no bonds; the State is thy parent. Its virtue or manhood is wholly filial.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Parent, India, Use

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.99, Xist Publishing

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• It is but too easy to establish another durable and harmonious routine. Immediately all parts of nature consent to it. Only make something to take the place of something, and men will behave as if it was the very thing they wanted.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Routine, Easy

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.106, Delphi Classics

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• What have I to do with plows? I cut another furrow than you see.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Cutting, Independence

  Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.356, Modern Library

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• I left college two months ago because it rewards conformity rather than independence, competition rather than collaboration, regurgitation rather than learning and theory rather than application. Our creativity, innovation and curiosity are schooled out of us.

  Dale J. Stephens

  Creativity, College, Two

  "College is a waste of time" by Dale Stephens, www.cnn.com. June 3, 2011.

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• The modern susceptibility to conformity and obedience to authority indicates that the truth endorsed by authority is likely to be accepted as such by a majority of people, who are innately obedient to authority. This obedience-truth will then become a consensus-truth accepted by many individuals unable to stand alone against the majority. In this way, the truth promulgated by the propaganda system - however irrational - stands a good chance of becoming the consensus, and may come to seem self-evident common sense.

  David Edward

  Self, Common Sense, People

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• Great teachers and schools expect and nurture quality work and quality performance. Great teachers inspire and demand quality, ever urging their students to higher levels of excellence. They shun mere conformity and expect their students to think and perform to their ever-increasing potential.

  Oliver DeMille

  Teacher, School, Thinking

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• Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the army recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we continue to be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection but end up turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of righteousness. We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not easy to stand up for what is right, especially when everyone else is afraid to leave the comfortable path of conformity.

  Michael Moore

  Mother, Gratitude, Army

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• Society is like a schoolmaster who estimates boys according to their conformity to a standard that is easiest for running a school.

  Henry Sidgwick

  Running, School, Boys

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• To me it's awe-inspiring ... All those billions of little evolutionary steps leading to this sensation of being "me."

  Simon Boswell

  Littles, Steps, Being Me

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