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
Never Forget!- The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
That life only is truly free which rules and suffices for itself.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Follow the crowd and you will never be followed by a crowd.
—Unknown
No one can transcend their own individuality.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
I came to live in a country I love; some people label me a defector. I have loved men and women in my life; I’ve been labeled “the bisexual defector” in print. Want to know another secret? I’m even ambidextrous. I don’t like labels. Just call me Martina.
—Martina Navratilova (b.1956) Czech-born American Sportsperson
In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
Only at his maximum does an individual surpass all his derivative elements, and become purely himself. And most people never get there. In his own pure individuality a man surpasses his father and mother, and is utterly unknown to them.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
No one should part with their individuality and become that of another.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Why fit in when you were born to stand out?
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
Do not desire to fit in. Desire to lead.
—Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
The definition of the individual was: a multitude of one million divided by one million.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
Personal history must be constantly renewed by telling parents, relatives, and friends everything one does. On the other hand, for the warrior who has no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with his acts. And above all, no one pins him down with their thoughts and their expectations.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
By measuring individual human worth, the novelist reveals the full enormity of the State’s crime when it sets out to crush that individuality.
—Ian McEwan British Novelist, Short-Story Writer
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.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.
—Japanese Proverb
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
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
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
The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I’m against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
If you come to fame not understanding who you are, it will define who you are.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
The individual in the ordinary circumstances of living may feel more unreal than real; in a literal sense, more dead than alive; precariously differentiated from the rest of the world, so that his identity and autonomy are always in question…. He may not possess an over-riding sense of personal consistency or cohesiveness. He may feel more insubstantial than substantial, and unable to assume that the stuff he is made of is genuine, good, valuable. And he may feel his self as partially divorced from his body.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
Individuality is only possible if it unfolds from wholeness.
—David Bohm (1917–92) American Theoretical Physicist
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
I am interested only in the relations of a people to the rearing of the individual man, and among the Greeks the conditions were unusually favourable for the development of the individual; not by any means owing to the goodness of the people, but because of the struggles of their evil instincts.With the help of favourable measures great individuals might be reared who would be both different from and higher than those who heretofore have owed their existence to mere chance. Here we may still be hopeful: in the rearing of exceptional men.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Pin your faith to no ones sleeves, haven’t you two eyes of your own.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Not armies, not nations, have advanced the race; but here and there, in the course of ages, an individual has stood up and cast his shadow over the world.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Every man must get to Heaven his own way.
—Frederick II of Prussia (1712–86) Prussian Monarch
You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant?
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
Be content to be what you are, and prefer nothing to it, and do not fear or wish for your last day.
—Martial (40–104) Ancient Roman Latin Poet
What we’re all striving for is authenticity, a spirit-to-spirit connection.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
Though I am grateful for the blessings of wealth, it hasn’t changed who I am. My feet are still on the ground. I’m just wearing better shoes.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
Our psychological reality, which lies below the surface, frightens us because it endlessly surprises us and drives us in a direction which society’s rules and organizations define as wrong or dangerous.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren’t any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn’t be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life’s challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
This above all—to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
Each man must have his “I”; it is more necessary to him than bread; and if he does not find scope for it within the existing institutions he will be likely to make trouble.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
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
We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
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
Partake of some of life’s sweet pleasures. And yes, get comfortable with yourself.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse than in the man who eats Grape Nuts on principle.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all.
—Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) Russian Head of State, Political leader
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
The mass of men lead quiet lives of desperation.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
Let your light shine. Shine within you so that it can shine on someone else. Let your light shine.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in all the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.
—John Steinbeck (1902–68) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Journalist