Conformity Quotes - Page 24

• Faith exists when absolute confidence in that which we cannot see combines with action that is in absolute conformity to the will of our Heavenly Father. Without all three--first, absolute confidence; second, action; and third, absolute conformity--without these three all we have is a counterfeit, a weak and watered-down faith.

  Joseph B. Wirthlin

  Father, Three, Firsts

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• Reject labels. Reject identities. Reject conformity. Reject convention. Reject definitions. Reject names.

  Ming-Dao Deng

  Names, Identity, Labels

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• This new declaration which emphasizes the necessity of global disarmament is based on the purposes and principles of the United Nations, in particular the prohibition of the threat and use of force, and on the obligation to negotiate disputes in conformity with the UN Charter. It is a strong and positive example for the entire world.

  Alfred-Maurice de Zayas

  Strong, Principles, Example

  "CELAC / Zone of Peace: 'A key step to countering the globalization of militarism' – UN Expert". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights News Item, www.ohchr.org. February 03, 2014.

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• I have tried and failed to lead a conventional life. When I try to be like other people, I fall out of bed.

  Marian Engel

  Fall, People, Trying

  Marian Engel (1985). “The Tattooed Woman”, Markham, Ont. : Penguin Books Canada

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• The search for truth is a cooperative, unending endeavor. We can, and should, engage in it to the extent we can and encourage others to do so as well, seeking to free ourselves from constraints imposed by coercive institutions, dogma, irrationality, excessive conformity and lack of initiative and imagination, and numerous other obstacles.

  Noam Chomsky

  Imagination, Obstacles, Dogma

  "On Responsibility, War Guilt and Intellectuals". Interview with Gabriel Matthew Schivone, chomsky.info. August 3, 2007.

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• Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration.

  H. L. Mencken

  Wisdom, Progress, Aberration

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Second Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.470, Vintage

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• The voices of conformity speak so loudly. Don't listen to them. No one does the right thing out of fear. If you ever utter the words, 'We've always done it that way,' I urge you to wash out your mouth with soap.

  Anna Quindlen

  Voice, Doe, Done

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• The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement.

  Aristotle

  Happy Life, Effort, Amusement

  Aristotle (1962). “Nicomachean Ethics”

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• So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon,for each day to have a new and different sun.

  Aron Ralston

  Passion, Adventure, Reality

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• orthodoxy is a fixed habit of mind. The average man and woman hug their orthodoxies and spit their venom on those that outrage them.

  Gertrude Atherton

  Men, Average, Hug

  Gertrude Atherton (2012). “Black Oxen”, p.308, Broadview Press

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• The invasion of the Church by the world is a menace to the extension of Christ's Kingdom. In all ages conformity to the world by Christians has resulted in lack of spiritual life and a consequent lack of spiritual vision and enterprise. A secularized or self-centered Church can never evangelize the world.

  John Mott

  Christian, Spiritual, Self

  John Raleigh Mott (1905). “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation”

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• To speak impartially, the best men that I know are not serene, a world in themselves. For the most part, they dwell in forms, andflatter and study effect only more finely than the rest.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Hypocrisy, Independence

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.221, Graphic Arts Books

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• As for conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. Let not your right hand know what your left hand does in that line of business. It will prove a failure.... It is a greater strain than any soul can long endure. When you get God to pulling one way, and the devil the other, each having his feet well braced,--to say nothing of the conscience sawing transversely,--almost any timber will give way.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Thinking, Hands, Feet

  Henry David Thoreau (2017). “HENRY DAVID THOREAU – The Man, The Philosopher & The Trailblazer (Illustrated): Biographies, Memoirs, Autobiographical Books & Personal Letters (Including Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada…)”, p.1292, e-artnow

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• So many of us have abdicated our passions for obligations, as if passion is a luxury for the young, and we must all grow up one day. We, even if reluctantly, fall into place to live a life of conformity that we describe as ‘maturity.’ We’ve made acting like an adult synonymous with living apathetic lives.

  Erwin McManus

  Growing Up, Fall, Passion

  Erwin Raphael McManus (2006). “Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul”, p.7, Thomas Nelson

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• nothing is more restful than conformity.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Restful

  Elizabeth Bowen (1950). “Collected Impressions”

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• The average mind is easily content with inherited and acquired things, or with the dicta of parents and teachers, because it is much easier to imitate than to create.

  Emma Goldman

  Teacher, Average, Parent

  Emma Goldman (1913). “Victims of Morality, and The Failure of Christianity: Two Lectures”

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• Sanity is not truth. Sanity is conformity to what is socially expected. Truth is sometimes in conformity, sometimes not.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Truth, Health, Independence

  Robert M. Pirsig (1991). “LILA An Inquriry into Morals”

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• I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Hair, Years

  Henry David Thoreau (2004). “Walden and Other Writings”, p.107, Bantam Classics

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• God, possessing supreme and infinite wisdom, acts in the most perfect manner, not only metaphysically, but also morally speaking, and ... with respect to ourselves, we can say that the more enlightened and informed we are about God's works, the more we will be disposed to find them excellent and in complete conformity with what we might have desired.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Perfect, Might, Infinite

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2015). “Leibniz: Philosophical Essays”, p.35, Hackett Publishing

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• A soft and sheltered Christianity, afraid to be lean and lone, unwilling to face the storms and brave the heights, will end up fat and foul in the cages of conformity.

  Vance Havner

  Brave, Storm, Height

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• When you reach the bottom of the well of your own nature, then you will know that the vileness was from yourself.

  Rumi

  Wells, Bottom, Knows

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• I am moving deeper into my own brain.

  Peter Porter

  Moving, Brain, Deeper

  Peter Porter (1972). “Preaching to the converted”, Not Avail

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• I was an onion, layers and layers and layers under a thin, papery skin. If anyone had been able to cut me open, my bitter, irritating juices would have stung their eyes, and they would have cried. Although I couldn't cry myself, much at the time. But no one would cut me open.

  Crescent Dragonwagon

  Eye, Cutting, Skins

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• For a man needs only to be turned around once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost...Not 'til we are lost do we begin to find ourselves.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Eye, Men, Needs

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• A self that is only differentiated - not integrated - may attain great individual accomplishments, but risks being mired in self-centered egotism. By the same token, a person who self is based exclusively on integration will be well connected and secure, but lack autonomous individuality. Only when a person invests equal amounts of psychic energy in these two processes and avoids both selfishness and conformity is the self likely to reflect complexity.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Self, Psychics, Two

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