Nonconformity Quotes

• Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.

  Jack Kerouac

  Inspirational, Life, Beautiful

  95 Copy quote

• Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Being Yourself, Freedom

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  149 Copy quote

  Show source

• If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Success, Music, Forgiveness

  Walden ch. 18 (1854). Frequently quoted as "marches to the tune of a different drummer."

  206 Copy quote

  Show source

• For nonconformity the world will whip you with its displeasure.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  World, Whips, Displeasure

  0 Copy quote

• The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Education, Children, Growing Up

  Friedrich Nietzsche (1977). “The Portable Nietzsche”, p.63, Penguin

  95 Copy quote

  Show source

• Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

  Dr. Seuss

  Life, Smile, Graduation

  1781 Copy quote

• The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Lying, Commitment

  Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.17, Beacon Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.97, Chartwell

  380 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

  Herman Melville

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Herman Melville, Harrison Hayford, G. Thomas Tanselle (1987). “Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition”, p.247, Northwestern University Press

  127 Copy quote

  Show source

• Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Life, Being Yourself

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.149, Princeton University Press

  346 Copy quote

  Show source

• No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Being Yourself, Lonely, Loneliness

  246 Copy quote

• Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication, and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us --- and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.

  Carl Sagan

  Atheist, Ocean, Dedication

  87 Copy quote

• They will say you are on the wrong road, if it is your own.

  Antonio Porchia

  Creativity, Criticism, Conformity

  16 Copy quote

• Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!

  George Bernard Shaw

  Forgiveness, Believe, Law

  16 Copy quote

• If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.

  Bill Vaughan

  Funny, Hater, Witty

  13 Copy quote

• Nonconformity is the highest evolutionary attainment of social animals.

  Aldo Leopold

  Animal, Social, Attainment

  Aldo Leopold (1972). “Round River”, p.13, Oxford University Press

  48 Copy quote

  Show source

• People would rather be wrong than be different.

  Henry Jacobsen

  Inspiration, People, Being Different

  10 Copy quote
• 

  Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!

  Bob Marley

  Inspirational, Music, Song

  "Redemption Song" (song) (1980)

  278 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  1325 Copy quote

• A free society cherishes nonconformity.
  It knows from the non-conformist, from the eccentric,
  have come many of the great ideas.

  Henry Steele Commager

  Ideas, Eccentric, Cherish

  21 Copy quote

• Those who can’t change their minds can’t change anything.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Change, Life Changing, People Changing

  218 Copy quote

• New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

  John Locke

  Business, Philosophy, War

  An Essay Concerning Human Understanding "Dedicatory Epistle" (1690)

  75 Copy quote

  Show source

• You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone.

  Eric Hoffer

  Conformity, Clique, Nonconformist

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

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

  Rudyard Kipling

  Life, Bullying, Being Yourself

  894 Copy quote

• I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Believe, Being Different, Venture

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1996). “The Confessions”, p.3, Wordsworth Editions

  144 Copy quote

  Show source