Nonconformity is the highest evolutionary attainment of social animals. — Aldo Leopold
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
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. — John F. Kennedy
Conformity is the only real fashion crime — Simon Doonan
Great thoughts are against all doctrines of conformity — Austin Osman Spare
He who would be a man must therefore be a non-conformist. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom. — Hyman Rickover
I cannot change the world, but I do not have to conform. — Marva Collins
A free society cherishes nonconformity.
It knows from the non-conformist, from the eccentric,
have come many of the great ideas. — Henry Steele Commager
Ideation is not a synonym for innovation, conformity is not its simple antonym, and innovation is not the automatic consequence of "creative thinking.". — Theodore Levitt
Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path. — Mandy Hale
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
Without deviance from normality, there can be no progress. — Frank Zappa
Herd psychology, conformity, capitulation — Howard Marks
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. — Frank Zappa
All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct. — George Bernard Shaw
One must conform to the baseness of an age or become neurotic. — Robert Musil
Non Conformity Image Quotes
Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.
Nonconformity Quotes
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
I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.
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
Non Conformist Quotes
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
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
Be neither a conformist or a rebel, for they are really the same thing. Find your own path, and stay on it. — Paul Vixie
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
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
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
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.
In my heart I'm independent, a bit of a rebel, a nonconformist. — Nicole Kidman
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
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
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
Conformity Quotes
Do you want to have an easy life? Then always stay with the herd and lose yourself in the herd. — Friedrich Nietzsche
be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be. — Henry David Thoreau
dreaming of the person you want to be is wasting the person you already are. — Kurt Cobain
Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery. — Lawana Blackwell
The tendency to conformity in our society is so strong that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call white black. This is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our ways of education and about the values that guide our conduct. — Solomon Asch
Nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals, whereas culture has invented a single mold to which all must conform. It is grotesque. — U.G. Krishnamurti
It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are. — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
So long as men praise you, you can only be sure that you are not yet on your own true path but on someone else's. — Friedrich Nietzsche
God is more concerned with conforming me to the likeness of His Son than leaving me in my comfort zones. God is more interested in inward qualities than outward circumstances - things like refining my faith, humbling my heart, cleaning up my thought life and strengthening my character. — Joni Eareckson Tada
We pray for our enemies; we seek to persuade those who hate us without cause to live conformably to the goodly precepts of Christ, that they may become partakers with us of the joyful hope of blessings from God, the Lord of all. — Justin Martyr
Rules direct us to average behaviors. If we’re aiming to create works that are exceptional, most rules don’t apply. Average is nothing to aspire to. The goal is not to fit in. If anything, it’s to amplify the differences, what doesn’t fit, the special characteristics unique to how you see the world. — Rick Rubin
My darling girl, when are you going to understand that "normal" isn't a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage. — Stockard Channing
Since I'm a contrarian, I don't want to go along with what everyone else thinks. — Akira Toriyama
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 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
As an artist, it is central to be unsatisfied. — Lawrence Calcagno
If you take responsibility for what you are doing to yourself, how you produce your symptoms, how you produce your illness, how you produce your existence-the very moment you get in touch with yourself-growth begins, integration begins. — Frederick Salomon Perls
All my work keeps going like a pendulum; it seems to swing back to something I was involved with earlier, or it moves between horizontality and verticality, circularlity, or a composite of them. For me, I suppose, that change is the only constant. — Lee Krasner
What is a rebel? A man who says no. — Albert Camus
You spoke about things they couldn't see and so they laughed. Yet to row up the dark river against the current, to take the unknown road blindly, stubbornly, and to search for words rooted like the knotted olive tree- let them laugh. And to yearn for the other world to inhabit today's suffocating loneliness, this ravaged present- let them be. — Giorgos Seferis
... he who has independent ideas is hated by the mass[es]. — Shang Yang
To be original, or different, is felt to be "dangerous." — Carl Rogers
In any society, the artist has a responsibility. His effectiveness is certainly limited and a painter or writer cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of non-conformity alive. Thanks to them the powerful can never affirm that everyone agrees with their acts. That small difference is important. — Luis Bunuel
When you reach the bottom of the well of your own nature, then you will know that the vileness was from yourself. — Rumi
Do you think I know what I'm doing? That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself? As much as a pen knows what it's writing, or the ball can guess where it's going next. — Rumi
A lot of times nerds are really artists listening to the beat of another drummer. — Roseanne Barr
I am myself. That is not enough. — Sylvia Plath
If you are to be, you must begin by assuming responsibility. You alone are responsible for every moment of your life, for every one of your acts. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I always wonder why some people see things as weird and some people don't. — Tim Burton
A writer or painter cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of nonconformity alive. — Luis Bunuel
Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s. — Anais Nin
There are a lot of things in this world that are more important than being popular. Being true to yourself is one of them. — Michael Landon
And if the soul
Is to know itself
It is into a soul
That it must look:
The stranger and the enemy, we've seen him in the mirror. — Giorgos Seferis
My surface is myself. Under which to witness, youth is buried. Roots? Everybody has roots. — William Carlos Williams
When I am told I am too old to do something, I try to do it right away. — Pablo Picasso
The longest journey is the journey inward. — Dag Hammarskjold
Until we lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves. — Henry Miller
... I suddenly woke up to the fact that if I accepted anybody's definition of what there was in the world, I would be limited. — Shirley Brice Heath
All great things must first wear terrifying and monstrous masks, in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity. — Friedrich Nietzsche
From now on, I'll connect the dots my own way. — Bill Watterson
Our real journey in life is interior. — Thomas Merton
In Conclusion
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