Quotes About Conformity

But the culture has failed, almost entirely, in inculcating internal controls on actions that have their origin in authority. For this reason, the latter constitutes a far greater danger to human survival.

The importation and enslavement of millions of lack people, the destruction of the American Indian population, the internment of Japanese American, the use of napalm against civilians in Vietnam, all are harsh policies that originated in the authority of a democratic nation, and were responded to with the expected obedience.

Tyrannies are perpetuated by diffident men who do not possess the courage to act out their beliefs.

There is a propensity for people to accept definitions of action provided by legitimate authority

is not what subjects do but for whom they are doing it that counts.

we sometimes have a choice among authorities, and we ought to look at this phenomenon within the experiment. It is possible that when different authorities simultaneously call for opposing lines of action, a person's own values will prevail and determine which authority he follows. Or

It is clear that the disagreement between the authorities completely paralyzed action. Not

Behavior prior to this rupture is termed obedience. The point of rupture is the act of disobedience.

I became a practical person, 'healthy', normal to the point of nausea, an enemy to any type of eccentricity - and the most painful thing for me - I started to sneer at my former ideals.

Our decisions are to a much greater extent dependent on our desire to conform to the standards of our class and environment than we are inclined to admit. A considerable proportion of our reasoning is merely an automatic function, so to speak, of influences and impressions which have become part of us...

It always demands a far greater degree of courage for an individual to oppose an organized movement than to let himself be carried along with the stream — individual courage, that is, a variety of courage that is dying out in these times of progressive organization and mechanization.

Consciously or unconsciously, our education renders us slaves to morals, religion and a perceived vision of the world; our breath is the air of the epoch in which we live.

How to escape the tyrannical demands that the state and Church seek to impose on me? How to protect that unique part of my soul against enforced submission to rules and measures dictated from outside?

Unsere Entschlüsse sind in viel höherem Maß von der Anpassung an Stand und Umgebung abhängig, als wir geneigt sind, uns einzugestehen.

The natural elements of sunlight, water and air were not permitted to touch a woman's bare skin. At the seaside, women made their laborious way through the water in heavy bathing costumes, covered from neck to ankles. Young girls in boarding schools and convents even had to take baths in long white garments, forgetting that they had bodies at all.

We are happy when people/things conform and unhappy when they don't. People and events don't disappoint us, our models of reality do. It is my model of reality that determines my happiness or disappointments.

The world always said to just be yourself, but it turned out when Evelyn was herself, no guys were at all interested, so she was left with games of make-believe, expressing enthusiasm for whatever the men wanted to do, be it rock climbing or going to a cheese-beer pairing or a Knicks game.

Being in a sorority was like flying coach. Both had bitchy women telling me all I was allowed to eat was a small bag of pretzels and a diet Coke.

In obedience there is always fear, and fear darkens the mind.

A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove.

The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders.

When I conform to truth, I do not conform to an abstract principle; I conform to the nature of God.

Though her soul requires seeing, the culture around her requires sightlessness. Though her soul wishes to speak its truth, she is pressured to be silent.

To live outside the law, you must be honest.