Quotes About Individuality

Self-centeredness thus making each man a king, enabling him to see the ordered ranks of the universe beneath him,

to understand that the rule among humankind—which allows of exceptions, naturally—is that the hard are the weak whom no one has wanted, and that the strong alone, caring little whether they are wanted or not, have that gentleness that the crowd mistakes for weakness.

the lie that tries to have us believe we are not inescapably alone in the world, and which, when we converse with someone, prevents us from admitting that it is not we who are speaking, that at such times we try to take on the semblance of other people, rather than be the self that differs from them.

Although expression may suffice to make us believe in enormous differences between things that are separated by infinitely little—although that infinitely little may by itself create an expression that is absolutely unique, an individuality—it was not only the infinitely little differences of its lines and the originality of its expression that made these faces appear irreducible to

The kind of plagiarism which it is most difficult for any human individual to avoid (and even for whole nations, who persist in reproducing their faults and aggravate them in so doing) is self-plagiarism.

Albeit expression suffices to make us believe in enormous differences between things that are separated by infinitely little — albeit that infinitely little may by itself create an expression that is absolutely unique, an individuality — it was not only the infinitely little of its lines and the originality of its expression that made each of these faces appear irreducible to terms of any other.

looked longingly at the characteristic features he shared with the Guermantes, a race that retains its individuality in a world by which it is not submerged, and in which it remains isolated in its divinely ornithological glory, for it seems to have sprung, in the age of mythology, from the union of a goddess and a bird.

As pessoas mundanas estão de tal modo acostumadas a que as procurem que quem lhes foge parece-lhes uma fênix e domina-lhes por inteiro o pensamento.

But even with respect to the most insignificant things in life, none of us constitutes a material whole, identical for everyone, which a person has only to go to look up as though we were a book of specifications or a last testament; our social personality is a creation of the minds of others.

Wenn man etwas tut, um anderen zu gefallen, kann es nicht gelingen, aber bei den Dingen, die man tut, um sich selbst zu zufriedenzustellen, besteht immer die Aussicht, dass sie auch das Interesse von anderen wecken.

the rule among the human race—a rule that naturally admits of exceptions—is that the reputedly hard are the weak whom nobody wanted, and that the strong, caring little whether they are wanted or not, have alone that gentleness which the vulgar herd mistakes for weakness.

Comtesse Molé did not justify the extraordinary reputation for intelligence that she had acquired, which made one think of those mediocre actors or novelists who, at certain periods, are hailed as men of genius, either because of the mediocrity of their competitors, among whom there is no artist capable of revealing what is meant by true talent, or because of the mediocrity of the public, which, did there exist an extraordinary individuality, would be incapable of understanding it.

Ve gözya?lar?m? silerken de, büyüdü?üm vakit di?er insanlar?n anlams?z hayatlar?n? taklit etmeyece?ime ve bahar geldi?i zaman, e?er Paris'te olursam, davetlere gidip türlü saçmal?klar dinleyece?ime, k?rlara gidip açan ilk akdikenleri görece?ime söz veriyordum...

Hélas! Albertine était plusieurs personnes.

He had always found a peculiar fascination in tracing in the paintings of the Old Masters, not merely the general characteristics of the people whom he encountered in his daily life, but rather what seems least susceptible of generalisation, the individual features of men and women whom he knew,

Even when one is no longer interested in things, it is still something to have been interested in them; because it was always for reasons which other people did not grasp. The memory of those sentiments is, we feel, to be found only in ourselves; we must go back into ourselves to study it.

Every time we are assailed by images of women very different from ourselves, unless these images are eliminated by being forgotten or overlaid by others, we can have no peace of mind until we have converted these strangers into something more like us, the self in that respect being similar in its action and reactions to the physical organism, which is incapable of accepting a foreign body within itself without immediately setting to work to digest and assimilate the intruder.

My ——" or "My dearest ——" followed by my Christian name, which, if we give the narrator the same name as the author of this book, would be 'My Marcel,' or 'My dearest Marcel.' After this I would never allow my relatives, by calling me 'dearest,' to rob of their priceless uniqueness the delicious words that Albertine uttered to me

After a certain age, and even if our inner development varies, the more we become ourselves, the more family characteristics are accentuated. For, while maintaining the harmonious design of its tapestry, Nature breaks up the monotony of the composition by the variety in the faces that it inserts.

the only truth is that every human being is a small island. You can build bridges, but you'll always be an island and everything else is a lie.

But I'm hesitant to introduce myself with this characterization, immediately reducing everything I am to my alcoholism. It's strange that the tendency in this global world is to accentuate identities, picking the one that most marginalizes you—sexuality, race, disability. I'm struck by the way we all rush to join our particular group, emphasizing what makes us different from everyone else, in order to make us all the same.

Mucho de lo suyo pudo desmoronarse, menos las cosas que le dieron identidad.

Entonces, Sofía, ¿cuál sería la forma correcta de ser mujer? Y la sonrisa compasiva de Sofía. -Ninguna. O todas.

Una pareja se compone de dos personas autónomas, ¡no es una amalgama única, por Dios!