Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way peace and security which he can not find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? 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 and far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.
—Muriel Strode (1875–1964) American Author, Businesswoman
The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Author, Mythologist
Since each person, as an individual, is the not-being of the other, it is never possible to eliminate non-understanding completely.
—Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) German Theologian, Philosopher
No one can transcend their own individuality.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Our expenses are all for conformity.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.
—Saul Alinsky (1909–72) American Community Organizer, Political Theorist
We live too much in platoons; we march by sections; we do not live in our individuality enough; we are slaves to fashion in mind and heart, if not to our passions and appetites.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind forward.
—Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972) Russian Engineer, Aviator
Practical to the end,
it is the poem
of his existence
that triumphed
finally;…
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) American Poet, Novelist, Cultural Historian
Seeing God without seeing the Self, one sees only mental image. Only he who has seen Himself has seen God, since he has lost individuality, and now sees nothing but God.
—Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian Hindu Mystic
Never follow the crowd.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant?
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it; and a State which postpones the interests of their mental expansion and elevation, to a little more of administrative skill, or of that semblance of it which practice gives, in the details of business; a State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished; and that the perfection of machinery to which it has sacrificed everything, will in the end avail it nothing, for want of the vital power which, in order that the machine might work more smoothly, it has preferred to banish.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
Follow the crowd and you will never be followed by a crowd.
—Unknown
The greatest works are done by the ones.—The hundreds do not often do much—the companies never; it is the units—the single individuals, that are the power and the might.—Individual effort is, after all, the grand thing.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Every man must get to Heaven his own way.
—Frederick II of Prussia (1712–86) Prussian Monarch
I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
And truly it demands something godlike in him who cast off the common motives of humanity and ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Follow your own star!
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
Never Forget!- The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
If mankind had not embedded itself, with the momentum of centuries and the passion of habit, in the id
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Individuality is freedom lived.
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970) American Novelist, Artist
I always knew I was destined for greatness.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
The great challenge which faces us is to assure that, in our society of big-ness, we do not strangle the voice of creativity, that the rules of the game do not come to overshadow its purpose, that the grand orchestration of society leaves ample room for the man who marches to the music of another drummer.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
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