Quotes About Conformity

Everyone pretends to be 'free thinkers', but few individuals pass the line into expressive territories that may be detrimental to their own social well-being.

The opposite of bravery is not cowardice but conformity.

It takes far more courage to violate a custom than a law.

I applaud the courage of he who accepts each and every one of the laws of a game he did not invent and was not asked if he wanted to play

Just because something 'is' doesn't mean that it should be.

Most acts of assent require far more courage than most acts of protest, since courage is clearly a readiness to risk self-humiliation.

At the bottom of a good deal of bravery ... lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion.

At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion.

To those of you who are wearing ties, I think my dad would appreciate it if you took them off.

Normality is what weak people call living, I call it death

Long hair is an unpardonable offense which should be punishable by death.

The real death of America will come when everyone is alike.

Creativity always dies a quick death in rooms that house conference tables.

Routine is the death to heroism.

Something was on top of him that had called a halt to him. Something had turned him into a human platitude. Something had warned him: You must not run counter to anything.

Maybe it's still a bit of an affront to people, to fail to abide by the old clock of life.

Legalism is a subtle danger because no one thinks of himself as a legalist. My own rules seem necessary; other people's rules seem excessively strict.

Karen made a face. Oh, c'mon. I don't think so, I said. Old Play-by-the-Rules McKinley, said Brian, laughing at me. I could hardly stand him. You've got that right, I said, and turned away.

What is right, in the end, is not always what it seems to be, and some rules are better broken.

C'est encore à partir du centre et non de l'extérieur que je peux ordonner. Si je ne fais que me conformer à une idée, aussi sublime soit-elle, cela signifie que quelque part existe la violence qui en est le corollaire, car se conformer n'implique-t-il pas déformer ? (p.250)

Ich kenne keinen sicheren Weg zum Erfolg, nur einen zum sicheren Misserfolg-es jedem recht machen zu wollen.

Human beings are largely a product of their social environment.

It bears repeating: the mental states needed to compete are not always socially palatable.

Dissention, diversity, the grain of salt and mustard are needed: Fascism does not want them, forbids them, and that's why you are not a Fascist; it wants everybody to be the same, but you are not.