I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–90) English Journalist, Author, Media Personality, Satirist
Fear God, and offend not the Prince nor his laws, and keep thyself out of the magistrate’s claws.
—Thomas Tusser
Singularity in the right hath ruined many; happy those who are convinced of the general opinion.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The American ideal, after all, is that everyone should be as much alike as possible.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
Why do you have to a nonconformist like everybody else?
—James Thurber
It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
As to conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I have not a very high opinion of that course.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
For all have not the gift of martyrdom.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
To do exactly as your neighbors do is the only sensible rule.
—Emily Post (1873–1960) American Writer, Socialite
The surest way to corrupt a young man is to teach him to esteem more highly those who think alike than those who think differently.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The mark of our time is its revulsion against imposed patterns.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
One lesson we learn early, that in spite of seeming difference, men are all of one pattern. We readily assume this with our mates, and are disappointed and angry if we find that we are premature, and that their watches are slower than ours. In fact, the only sin which we never forgive in each other is difference of opinion.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Most people can’t understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do.
—Ivan Turgenev (1818–83) Russian Novelist, Playwright
We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Every society honors its live conformists
and its dead troublemakers.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
We are citizens of an age, as well as of a State; and if it is held to be unseemly, or even inadmissible, for a man to cut himself off from the customs and manners of the circle in which he lives, why should it be less of a duty, in the choice of his activity, to submit his decision to the needs and the taste of his century?
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Take rather than give the tone of the company you are in.—If you have parts, you will show them, more or less, upon every subject; and if you have not, you had better talk sillily upon a subject of other people’s choosing than of your own.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
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