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
My great mistake, the fault for which I can’t forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
No one should part with their individuality and become that of another.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Every individual nature has its own beauty.—In every company, at every fireside, one is struck with the riches of nature, when he hears so many tones, all musical, sees in each person original manners which have a proper and peculiar charm, and reads new expressions of face.—He perceives that nature has laid for each the foundations of a divine building if the soul will build thereon.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
That life only is truly free which rules and suffices for itself.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Each mind hath its own method.—A true man never acquires after college rules.—What you have yourself aggregated in a natural manner surprises and delights when it is produced.—We cannot oversee each other’s secret.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Never follow the crowd.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
Our expenses are all for conformity.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
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
A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Why fit in when you were born to stand out?
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
Those who talk about individuality the most are the ones who most object to deviation, and in a few years it may be the other way around. Some day everybody will just think what they want to think, and then everybody will probably be thinking alike; that.
—Andy Warhol (1928–87) American Painter, Printmaker, Film Personality
Every single one of us can do things that no one else can do—can love things that no one else can love. We are like violins. We can be used for doorstops, or we can make music. You know what to do.
—Barbara Sher (1935–2020) American Career Coach
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
Pin your faith to no ones sleeves, haven’t you two eyes of your own.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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
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
I still have my feet on the ground, I just wear better shoes.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Author, Mythologist
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
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
You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant?
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
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
Follow your own star!
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
Individuality is freedom lived.
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970) American Novelist, Artist
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
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