Individualism Quotes

• Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

  Oscar Wilde

  Music, Art, Creative

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.1043, GENERAL PRESS

  91 Copy quote

  Show source

• Individualism regards man-every man-as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being.

  Ayn Rand

  Independent, Men, Sovereign

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.231, Penguin

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• The function of the society is to cultivate the individual. It is not the function of the individual to support society.

  Joseph Campbell

  Support, Individual, Function

  Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.239, Anchor

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• The philosophy commonly called individualism is a philosophy of social cooperation and the progressive intensification of the social nexus.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Philosophy, Liberty, Cooperation

  Ludwig von Mises (2016). “Human Action”, p.188, Lulu Press, Inc

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Inspirational, Life, Bullying

  875 Copy quote

• If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything.

  Claude McKay

  Inspirational, Faith, Men

  Claude McKay, Gene Andrew Jarrett (1937). “A Long Way from Home”, p.82, Rutgers University Press

  152 Copy quote

  Show source

• For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.

  Joe Biden

  Long, Community, Common

  "Biden Joins Campaign for the Presidency" by E. J. Dionne Jr., www.nytimes.com. June 10, 1987.

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Wisdom, Ignorance

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2694, Delphi Classics

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Robert Frost

  Being Yourself, People, Inspire

  10 Copy quote

• No society can possibly be built on a denial of individual freedom.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Freedom, Liberty, Denial

  Mahatma Gandhi (1959). “India of My Dreams”, p.27, Rajpal & Sons

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.

  Ayn Rand

  Rights, Liberty, Majority

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.100, Penguin

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• Libertarianism is rejected by the modern left - which preaches individualism but practices collectivism. Capitalism is rejected by the modern right-which preaches enterprise but practices protectionism.

  Karl Hess

  Practice, Modern, Rejected

  L. K. Samuels, Thomas Szasz, Douglas Casey, Brian Clelland, David Friedman (2017). “Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer”, p.34, BookBaby

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• More and more, when faced with the world of men, the only reaction is one of individualism. Man alone is an end unto himself. Everything one tries to do for the common good ends in failure.

  Albert Camus

  Men, Individuality, Trying

  Albert Camus (1978). “Notebooks, 1935-1942”, Harcourt

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even - if you will - eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with.

  Joseph Brodsky

  Happiness, Thinking, Evil

  Joseph Brodsky's commencement address at Williams College (1984), as quoted in Robert Inchausti "Thinking through Thomas Merton: Contemplation for Contemporary Times" (p. 110), 2014.

  47 Copy quote

  Show source

• In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality.

  Karl Marx

  Independent, Individuality, Persons

  BookCaps, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels (2012). “The Communist Manifesto in Plain and Simple English”, p.61, BookCaps Study Guides

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• The enemies of intellectual liberty always try to present their case as a plea for discipline versus individualism. The issue truth-versus-untruth is as far as possible kept in the background.

  George Orwell

  Issues, Discipline, Intellectual

  George Orwell, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “The Complete Works of George Orwell: I belong to the Left: 1945”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.

  James F. Cooper

  Mean, Rights, Government

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a society that tries to standardize thinking, individuality is not highly prized.

  Alex Grey

  Thinking, Individuality, Trying

  Alex Grey (2017). “The Mission of Art”, p.38, Shambhala Publications

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• Do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a man who says: “I’ll do as I please at everybody else’s expense.” An individualist is a man who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of man—his own and those of others.

  Ayn Rand

  Respect, Mistake, Men

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.231, Penguin

  78 Copy quote

  Show source

• The distinctive principle of Western social philosophy is individualism.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Philosophy, Principles, Social

  10 Copy quote

• Individualism and mobility are at the core of American identity

  Deborah Tall

  Identity, Mobility, Core

  Deborah Tall (1993). “From where We Stand: Recovering a Sense of Place”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are not on the way to greater individualism, but are becoming an increasingly manipulated mass civilization.

  Erich Fromm

  Civilization, Way, Becoming

  Erich Fromm (2011). “The Revolution of Hope”, p.36, Lantern Books

  37 Copy quote

  Show source

• Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself.

  Carl Jung

  Men, Individuality, Resistance

  Carl Gustav Jung (2013). “The Undiscovered Self”, p.43, Routledge

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Individualism, the love of enterprise, and the pride in personal freedom, have been deemed by Americans not only as their choicest, but their peculiar and exclusive possessions.

  James Bryce

  Pride, America, Liberty

  James Bryce “The American Commonwealth: Vol. 4: Illustrations and Reflections & Social Institutions”, Jazzybee Verlag

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• The intellectually sophisticated person is indifferent to all genuine individuality, because relationships and reactions result from it which cannot be exhausted with logical operations.

  Georg Simmel

  Individuality, Exhausted, Sophisticated

  Georg Simmel, Kurt H. Wolff (1950). “The Sociology of Georg Simmel”, p.411, Simon and Schuster

  33 Copy quote

  Show source