Quotes About Individuality

Still Mrs. ransom felt [remarking on daytime talk shows], they were all better than she was. For what none of these. whooping, giggling (and often quite obese) creatures seemed in no doubt about was that at the basic level at which these programs were pitched people were all the same. There was no shame and no reserve and to pretend otherwise was to be stuck up and a hypocrite.

You cannot be other than you are. Thank God.

Independent souls find aliveness more attractive than social approval.

An authentic life does not require anyone else's approval for your creative choices.

It takes courage to leave behind the world you have been taught is so important, and instead claim what is right for you. Ultimately we must, as Walt Whitman urged, "Dismiss whatever insults your soul.

THE MYTH: Being a misfit is a defect you must correct. THE REALITY: Your nonconformity is your pathway to fulfillment.

You are not here to duplicate and replicate. You are here to initiate.

After a certain point you quit trying to prove yourself to anyone and you simply live in the way that makes you happy.

Captain Phasma. Remember me?" He moved his weapon slightly. "Here's my blaster, ya still wanna inspect it?" Phasma held on to her dignity. "Yes, I remember you. FN-2187." Finn shook his head curtly. "Not anymore. My name is Finn. A real name for a real person. And I'm in charge now.

Much easier it was to follow orders than to think for oneself.

In discovering that half of his biological heritage consisted of nothing more than an impersonal concoction of designer proteins, artificially leveraged by indifferent scientists to produce a zygote that when matured would, they hoped, display certain interesting mental abilities, he had felt something fundamental drain out of him. He had been nothing more than a test, an experiment, one among many.

I'm not a hero. I'm not Resistance. I'm a stormtrooper.

On the other hand, Andrea had decided last month, on the occasion of her twelfth birthday and for no discernible reason (at least, none that an adult could discern), that from then on her given name would be Fitzwinkle. And then

Mr. Pilkey smiled. "Well, I wish they were on the shelves, where everybody could read them," he said. "I think it's important that libraries be a place where you can find all kinds of books. Good ones, bad ones, funny ones, serious ones. Every person should be free to read whatever they want, whenever they want, and not have to explain to anyone else why we like it, or why we think it's valuable. I hope you all get a chance to read my books someday.

Peter was that magic person we all meet, if we're lucky, who shows us how to live our lives, and be ourselves.

Each person if he was lucky found the place where he could shine, and the person he could shine on. At Cranley Gardens Johnny had been audience, to Evert, to Ivan, to the whole clever, memoir-swapping gang. But with Pat he was a closely attended performer - he was funny, almost articulate, and rich in things worth saying.

Readers who wish to follow Whim rather than whim--readers who have learned enough about what he or she really thrives on to seek more of it--the first lesson must be in humility. . . . Don't waste time and mental energy in comparing yourself to others whether to your shame or gratification, since we are all wayfarers.

And when people commend someone for "thinking for herself" they usually mean "ceasing to sound like people I dislike and starting to sound more like people I approve of.

To think independently of other human beings is impossible, and if it were possible it would be undesirable. Thinking is necessarily, thoroughly, and wonderfully social. Everything you think is a response to what someone else has thought and said. And when people commend someone for "thinking for herself" they usually mean "ceasing to sound like people I dislike and starting to sound more like people I approve of.

I gave up Christianity at about fourteen. Came back to it when getting on for thirty. An almost purely philosophical conversion. I didn't want to. I'm not the religious type. I want to be let alone, to feel I'm my own master: but since the facts seemed to be the opposite I had to give in.

For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present. Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone.

each act is an island in time, to be judged on its own.

Invisibly, almost without notice, we are losing ourselves. We are losing our ability to know who we are and what is important to us. We are creating a global machine in which each of us is a mindless and reflexive cog, relentlessly driven by the speed, noise, and artificial urgency of the wired world.

They draw strength from being alone while they create or explore new worlds. They need that aloneness. They have developed the habit of mind to accept and seek out that aloneness. Sometimes, they must push back against their society to get what they need.