Quotes About Conformity

What we need is equality without conformity.

Anyway you looked at it, I had little choice but to bray along with the others. It was too late now. I had let my diffidence and dislike for exhibitionism get the better of me.

Her good, solid, middle-class mother had tried so hard to iron out her rough edges—and blamed herself when she realized she hadn't succeeded. Those rough edges had rubbed quite a few people the wrong way. Somehow Jo had always sensed those weren't the kind of people she wanted around her. And as she grew older, she saw that those who wanted girls to be docile and disciplined were often the same people who took advantage of them.

Imagine North Korea in 2030, when every citizen has to wear a biometric bracelet 24 hours a day. If you listen to a speech by the Great Leader and the bracelet picks up the tell-tale signs of anger, you are done for.

He who has an opinion of his own, but depends on the opinion and tastes of others is a slave.

You don't want to stir things up by questioning the specialists.And it's terribly difficult to end something that's already been established.You interfere and you're out of a job.No, worse yet, you might be sent to a forced labor camp for ideological deviation.Even if everyone were against it, no one would say it out loud.That's why nothing changes.

Conservatism and passive acceptance... They can't think for themselves. Anything that's too complicated sends their heads reeling. Makes me want to puke.

If she wasn't careful, she'd slide without a ripple into the gently flowing stream of her old life, pulled back under the current without a wimper of protest. Another housewife lost in the flow.

To be normal is the ultimate aim of the unsuccessful.

I thought marriage was something very quiet and very regular and very bourgeois.

When I say something like "back when I was in high school," I usually mean: "back when I was supposed to be in high school.

Me parecía que de nada vale correr si siempre ha de irse por el mismo camino, cerrado, de nuestra personalidad. Unos seres nacen para vivir, otros para trabajar, otros para mirar la vida. Yo tenía un pequeño y ruin papel de espectadora. Imposible salirme de él. Imposible libertarme.

We all do as we're told but some days it doesn't seem to matter.

Things don't have to be sane when they're normal.

Groupthink can also happen when a fixed-mindset leader punishes dissent. People may not stop thinking critically, but they stop speaking up.

Much of the appeal of dogma in religion is that it gives its followers rules to follow that rescue them from having to find out who they are and what they really think.

Wer den Normen entspricht, kann es sich leisten zu verzweifeln, dass es sie gibt.

Wer der Norm entspricht, kann dem Irrturm erliegen, dass es sie nicht gibt. Wer der Mehrheit ähnelt, kann dem Irrturm erliegen, dass die Ebenbildlichkeit mit der die Norm setzenden Mehrheit keine Rolle spielt. Wer der Norm entspricht, dem oder der fällt oft nicht auf, wie sie anderer ausgrenzt oder degradiert. Wer der Norm entspricht, kann sich oft ihre Wirkung nicht vorstellen, weil die eigene Akzeptanz als selbstverständlich angenommen wird.

most people in this world feel guilty about being who they are.

Do you want people to think you're crazy? Because only crazy people capitalize every word.

Stop crying, bitch. This is nothing compared to what I went through with my soccer team or my frat or my old man, so man up already.' I am caught in the toxic cycle of masculinity, the one quietly tolerated by the American System of Miseducation and he was hazed so he wants to haze me...

You must form your own fashions in a way which demonstrates that you flout the standards from knowledge, not from ignorance. . . But I may flout the standards? . . . Of course. What do you think standards are for?

When you get the urge to do a cartwheel in the supermarket, say something inappropriate in a meeting or run a red light, this is the part of the brain that jumps in and reminds you not to be so stupid. It's a useful feature in all kinds of situations and saves us a lot of time and potential embarrassment, but the downside is that it does the same job for ideas, shutting down thoughts that are a bit out there but which might just work.

the less androgynous the person, the likelier he or she was to be incapable of action if the appropriate action was not clearly delineated . . . How many women there were . . . who tore themselves or their families apart because they could not allow themselves any action or occupation that could appear manly, and might make their husbands appear less so. [pp. 132-133]