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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Good and just society is neither the thesis of capitalism nor the antithesis of communism, but a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Democracy, Communism, Conscious

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2010). “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”, p.216, Beacon Press

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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• The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life.

  Georg Simmel

  Being Yourself, Inspire, Historical

  Georg Simmel, Kurt H. Wolff (1950). “The Sociology of Georg Simmel”, p.409, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

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• In the age of the individual's liquidation, the question of individuality must be raised anew.

  Theodor Adorno

  Birthday, Being Yourself, Inspire

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• 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.

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• 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. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful co-existence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights - and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members.

  Ayn Rand

  Independent, Men, Rights

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

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• We are in a period of such individualism that one no longer speaks of disciples; one speaks of thieves.

  Jean Cocteau

  Thieves, Speak, Periods

  Jean Cocteau (1990). “Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure”, Peter Owen Publishers

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• The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence.

  Eddie Rickenbacker

  Character, Imagination, Independence

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• Non-conformism is the major, perhaps the only, sin of our time.

  Robert M. Lindner

  Sin, Our Time, Majors

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