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
A free society cherishes nonconformity.
It knows from the non-conformist, from the eccentric,
have come many of the great ideas. — Henry Steele Commager
He who would be a man must therefore be a non-conformist. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Great thoughts are against all doctrines of conformity — Austin Osman Spare
Nonconformity is the highest evolutionary attainment of social animals. — Aldo Leopold
A contrarian isn’t one who always objects — that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently, from the ground up, and resists pressure to conform. — Naval Ravikant
I cannot change the world, but I do not have to conform. — Marva Collins
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. — John F. Kennedy
Be neither a conformist or a rebel, for they are really the same thing. Find your own path, and stay on it. — Paul Vixie
To some extent, people who are insane are nonconformists, and society and their family wish they would live what appear to be useful lives. — John Forbes Nash
Conformity is the only real fashion crime — Simon Doonan
All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom. — Hyman Rickover
Short Non Conformist Quotes
I'm a sworn enemy of convention. I despise the conventional in anything, even the arts. — Hedy Lamarr
It's kind of rebellious to be yourself. — Kate Moss
Since I'm a contrarian, I don't want to go along with what everyone else thinks. — Akira Toriyama
When a man becomes a conformist, he is sacrificing the richness of independent thinking. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
I think being different, going against the grain of society is the greatest thing in the world. — Elijah Wood
Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist. — John Taylor Gatto
The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself. — Peter Thiel
... he who has independent ideas is hated by the mass[es]. — Shang Yang
What is a rebel? A man who says no: but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. — Albert Camus
Never follow the crowd. — Bernard Baruch
Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.
My birth sign is Scorpio and they eat themselves up and burn themselves out. I swing between happiness and misery. I am part prude and part nonconformist. I say what I think and I don't pretend and I am prepared to accept the consequences of my actions. — Vivien Leigh
Conformity may give you a quiet life; it may even bring you to a University Chair. But all change in history, all advance, comes from the nonconformists. If there had been no trouble-makers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves. — A. J. P. Taylor
All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions. All change is the result of a change in the contemporary state of mind. — Adlai E. Stevenson
Yes, I see the Church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else? — James Thurber
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
What a country, and what a culture, when the liberals cry before they are hurt, and the reactionaries pose as brave nonconformists, while the radicals make a fetish of their own jokey irrelevance. — Christopher Hitchens
The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific and religious freedom have always been nonconformists. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Non Conformity Quotes
dreaming of the person you want to be is wasting the person you already are. — Kurt Cobain
Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows. — Rainer Maria Rilke
We come from the mentality, that rarely sees the horror in symmetry or the beauty in non-conformity — Shane Koyczan
My darling girl, when are you going to understand that "normal" isn't a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage. — Stockard Channing
In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. — John Stuart Mill
To be a genuine individualist requires a great deal of strength and courage. It is never easy to chart new territory, to cross new frontiers, or to introduce subtle shadings to an established color. — Toller Cranston
I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine. — Frederick Salomon Perls
I was very far away. My real life had gone underground and could not be seen by anybody. The person at the surface that everybody saw was no longer me. — Philip O Ceallaigh
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
Be the one who sets the trend, not the one who follows it. — Isaac Mashman
The majority of what you want will come from the minority of what you do. — Gary Keller
The unbeaten brat will remain unlearned. — R.K. Narayan
Innovation and progress are achieved only by those who venture beyond standard operating procedure. — Michael Abrashoff
If you’re even a little bit different than what is considered the norm, then you’re an oddball. — Markiplier
If a warrior is to succeed at anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession. — Carlos Castaneda
When all think alike, then no one is thinking — Walter Lippmann
You may confuse a lot of people when going against the grain of conventional thinking, and that's perfectly okay. — Lewis Howes
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls. — Carl Jung
Never Conform Quotes
To seek understanding before taking action, yet to trust my instincts when action is called for. Never to avoid danger from fear, never to seek out danger for its own sake. Never to conform to fashion from fear of eccentricity, never to be eccentric from fear of conformity. — Steven Brust
Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul. — Mark Twain
At every point I am besieged by people who would like me to conform to some social norm of whatever sort of social group they expect me to be a part of. I never have any identification with these social groups. — Sean Parker
Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don't talk how persons ought to eat, but
eat as you ought. For remember that in this manner Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation. — Epictetus
...most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution. — Aldous Huxley
A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness. — Ezra Pound
Men are recognizing that they have been forced to conform to a very narrow and rather two-dimensional picture of maleness and manhood that they have never had the freedom to question. — Andrew Cohen
But when I call for a hero, out comes my lazy old self; so I never know who I am, nor how many I am or will be. I'd love to be able to touch a bell and summon the real me, because if I really need myself, I mustn't disappear. — Pablo Neruda
You should never be afraid to be yourself, under any circumstances. The genre of cool is fleeting. What's cool today will not be cool a year from now. If you're yourself, you'll be at peace with yourself. — Jaleel White
One must never forbid oneself anything. One must also be able to go back, one must always be able to change. — Hans Hartung
Do Not Conform Quotes
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds — Paul the Apostle
Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic self-hood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks--we will also find our path of authentic service in the world. — Parker J. Palmer
Voting is not an act of political freedom. It is an act of political conformity. Those who refuse to vote are not expressing silence. They are screaming in the politician's ear: 'You do not represent me. This is not a process in which my voice matters. I do not believe you.' — Wendy McElroy
We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like. — Richard J. Foster
Many people feel they are powerless to do anything effective with their lives. It takes courage to break out of the settled mold, but most find conformity more comfortable. This is why the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it's conformity. — Rollo May
Have the courage to go against the tide of current values that do not conform to the path of Jesus. — Pope Francis
If outer doors close seem to close to you, do not hesitate. Perist in inner preparations. The inner realm of thought controls all outer action. When you get the right attitude, the outer world of results and personalities must conform to it. That is the law of mind-action. — Catherine Ponder
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
As to conforming outwardly and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. — Henry David Thoreau
We live in a society that penalizes highly creative individuals for their non-conformist autonomy. This makes the teaching of problem solving in design both discouraging and difficult. A...student (has) massive blocks against new ways of thinking, engendered by some 16 years of mis-education. — Victor Papanek
Rebels and non-conformists are often the pioneers and designers of change. — Indira Gandhi
The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all. — Max Beerbohm
Why is it that all non-conformists look the same? — Billy Corgan
Don't you get tired of seeing so many "non-conformists" with the same non-conformist look? — Thomas Sowell
You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. — Eric Hoffer
The only true non-conformists are in the asylums; the only radically free spirits are in the death house awaiting the chair. We live by patterns. — Herman Wouk
(...the non-conformist, how do you keep from getting scarred?)/i don’t! i got a scar here…and uh i got a scar on my knee…and uh a few scars on my soul. — Marlon Brando
If children were brought up to become non-conformists it would only ruin their lives. So parents all over China who loved their children told them to do as Chairman Mao said. It was not possible to tell them anything else. — Jung Chang
Society demands conformity at the expense of individual liberty. Let us be for once a non conformist to be fully alive. — Wayne Dyer
My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist. Although I am not a Communist I refused to fall in line by hating them. — Charlie Chaplin
It's the non-conformist who gives color to history. — Dorothy Fuldheim
Woe to him inside a non-conformist clique who does not conform to non-conformity. — Eric Hoffer
My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist. — Charlie Chaplin
You can’t be a non-conformist if you don’t wear the proper uniform. — Jack L. Chalker
A "Normal" person is the sort of person that might be designed by a committee. You know, "Each person puts in a pretty color and it comes out gray." — Allan Sherman
I learned the word non-conformist in fourth grade and immediately announced that I would grow up to become one. — Nick Offerman
Now let's repeat the non-conformists' oath: I promise to be different! I promise to be unique! I promise not to repeat things other people say! Good! — Steve Martin
The American people...have a stake in non-conformity. For they know that the American genius is non-conformist. — Henry Steele Commager
I feel like, in many ways, Billie Holiday's still very under-appreciated as an artist. People focus on her voice, and all of the very recognizable vocal things that she does, which are great. But I wanted to, with this project, start the conversation again about her as a radical feminist, as a civil rights activist - taking a stance. And also just [her] being a non-conformist. — Jose James
Linde's Danger to Self is a warm, candid and appealing account of being an emergency room psychiatrist. Linde captures the non-conformist, hard-boiled style of the psychiatrists who work in this setting. — Tanya Luhrmann
Friends have asked how I came to engender this American antagonism. My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist. Although I am not a Communist I refused to fall in line by hating them. Secondly, I was opposed to the Committee on Un-American Activities - a dishonest phrase to begin with, elastic enough to wrap around the throat and strangle the voice of any American citizen whose honest opinion is a minority of one. — Charlie Chaplin
Films might get to you and your subconscious and make a little difference, but when the vigilante drum beats, the mob screams and the conformists go along with it. There have to be people who are non-conformists. — Oliver Stone
The spirit of a production-centered, commodity-greedy society is such that only the non-conformist can defend himself sufficiently against it. Those who are seriously concerned with love as the only rational answer to the problem of human existence must, then, arrive at the conclusion that important and radical changes in our social structure are necessary, if love is to become a social and not a highly individualistic, marginal phenomenon. — Erich Fromm
I don't think playing it safe constitutes a retreat, necessarily. In other words, I don't think if, by playing safe he means we are not going to delve into controversy, then if that's what he means he's quite right. I'm not going to delve into controversy. Somebody asked me the other day if this means that I'm going to be a meek conformist, and my answer is no. I'm just acting the role of a tired non-conformist. — Rod Serling
In Conclusion
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