Quotes About Individuality

What fools the public were! They were exactly like sheep…thought Mr. Abbott sleepily…following each other's lead, neglecting one book and buying another just because other people were buying it, although, for the life of you, you couldn't see what the one lacked and the other possessed.

There are very few people in the world with courage enough to admit that they do not care for music (dogs and children come into the same category) and so brand themselves forever as Philistines in the eyes of their friends.

If talent is a natural aptitude for creation with an outlook on life peculiar to oneself, then genius is to have an outlook on life, peculiar to oneself, which yet appeals to everybody. Talent is for oneself and a few others, but genius is universal.

And another thing," added Mademoiselle Bénet. "You must not make the mistake of saying to yourself, 'All French people are like that.' There are bad people and good people in my country – as there are in every country under the sun.

everybody had to find their own way of bearing things

Yes, it is. Some people would find it frightfully dull to be the daughter of the parson at Chevis Green." "But we don't," cried Liz. "That's exactly what I mean. It's in you from the beginning. Either there's this mysterious thing in you that makes you happy—that makes you interested in everything and interesting to yourself—or else there isn't, and you're dull and dreary and discontented.

She smiles and says I only think so because my standard has gone up. Reply that she really does not know me, I am a rebel at heart. 'The only people who are not rebels are vegetable marrows,' says Mrs. Parsons. Reply that it would be rather nice to be a vegetable marrow never to be discontented or miserable without any reason for being so. Mrs. Parsons laughs and says 'Perhaps but how dull never to be joyful and happy without any reason for being so!

Because if you walk in a city you're jostled by hundreds of indifferent people with indifferent eyes that look at you as if you weren't there at all. You begin to feel you must be invisible. Hundreds and thousands of eyes, and not one pair really seeing you or caring who you are. I'd rather walk down Beilford High Street and know that everybody was saying, 'There goes the mad painter!' It's better to be mad than invisible." She

That's what I was meaning. Ye've got to have freedom first. It's no use believing what other folks say; the only thing is for each man to fend for himself, Mr. Darnay. Each man standing on his own feet, finding his own path—" "Grand!

If strangers see you behaving like lunatics, it doesn't matter, because they don't know who you are. And if your friends see you behaving like lunatics, it doesn't matter, because they know who you are.

Why not let Frances have a holiday?" inquired ?r. Wheeler, who was sick to death of the eternal argument. "It will do her good to be on her own for a bit." "On her own!" screamed Mrs. Wheeler. "Henry, what nonsense you talk! How can she go and live in a hotel by herself?" "I'm twenty-five," said Frances desperately. "I can look after myself perfectly well. I want a holiday . . . I've never had a holiday in my life.

In Mureth House there was not only physical comfort but mental and spiritual comfort as well. You could be yourself here. You could say what you liked without the slightest fear of being misunderstood and you could do what you liked without the slightest fear of giving offence.

Qué tonto era el público! Era exactamente un rebaño de ovejas —pensó, adormilado—. Van uno detrás de otro como tontos, no reparan en tal libro, pero compran el de al lado solo porque lo compran los demás, aunque no hay manera de saber qué ven en el uno o dejan de ver en el otro. Pero este libro… éste tiene que salir. Hay que publicarlo»

It was his choice rather than mine for I found Ned a depressing companion and although I needed a friend badly I knew that I could never be really friendly with Ned. To be friends with a person you must be able to share his interests and he must be able to share yours. Ned's interests were different from mine and he did not care a brass pin what my interests were. In addition, Ned was an inveterate borrower.

In most gatherings people blend into one another—they are dressed in the same fashion and their faces wear the same sort of "party look"—but these people were so strong and rugged in personality that they always remained themselves no matter where they were or what they were doing. Presently,

For, no matter how often or how well a person is described, a verbal description can never convey an accurate picture of the lineaments, and the pigment, and the aura that make up the whole personality of a human being.

But better die than live mechanically a life that is a repetition of repetitions.

There's lots of good fish in the sea...maybe...but the vast masses seem to be mackerel or herring, and if you're not mackerel or herring yourself, you are likely to find very few good fish in the sea.

Instead of chopping yourself down to fit the world, chop the world down to fit yourself.

It is a fine thing to establish one's own religion in one's heart, not to be dependent on tradition and second-hand ideals. Life will seem to you, later, not a lesser, but a greater thing.

There will be no more protest. No more dissension. No more violence. There will be only one voice. The voice of Ravinia. The voice of Halla. Your voice." "There goes freedom of speech." I said Alexnder Naymeer and Bobby Pendragon, Raven Rise, Page 458

We may have been like needles in a hay stack, but they were like needles . . . in a stack of needles

From one perspective or another, all our lives are narrow. Only when lives are placed side by side do they seem larger.

I don't believe in trying to be somebody you're not - just be a bigger, better version of yourself.