Quotes About Individualism

It is impossible to understand the massive concentrations of political power in the twentieth-century, appearing so paradoxically, or it has seemed, right after a century and a half of individualism in economics and morals, unless we see the close relationship that prevailed all through the nineteenth century between individualism and State power and between both of these together and the general weakening of the area of association that lies intermediate to man and the State.

It is true that old-school Lost Cause theology is rarely aired in mainstream white churches today. But its direct descendant, the individualist theology that insists that Christianity has little to say about social injustice — created to shield white consciences from the evils and continued legacy of slavery and segregation — lives on, not just in white evangelical churches but also increasingly in white mainline and white Catholic churches as well.

Through the twin pathways of white racial identity and the increasing relevance of Republican partisanship in each of these groups, the freewill individualism of white evangelicals has been diffused throughout white American Christianity

Probably one of those sinister organisations that lurked behind the mask of amusing acronym, such as BUM, for example - the Bermondsey Union of Minstrels. Or WILLY, the Whitechapel Institution for Long-Legged Yodellers. It could be any one of a hundred such evil cabals. With the notable exception of the Meritorious Union For Friendship, Decency, Individualism, Virtue and Educational Resources, who were above reproach.

I have an intense dislike for artificial society. In France, one could lead a free life - to do what one wanted to do without interference or criticism from one's neighbors.

This planet is full of people operating on the premise that their interests trump the interests of pretty much everyone else on the planet.

There are too many people, and too few human beings.

Loneliness is an aspect of natural human egotism.

So I ended up being an anarchist. I was the only anarchist I knew and thank god, because otherwise I would have stopped being an anarchist. Unanimity pisses me off immensely.

Is he a renegade, works best by himself, alienates those in authority? Actually, that would be you, dear. True

But that was the world now, everyone in their little silo, broadcasting versions of their lives from a screen, onto the screens of others.

Despite the fact that our brains are social organs, Western science studies each individual as a single, isolated organism rather than one embedded within the human community. This way of thinking leads us in the West to search for technical and abstract answers to human problems instead of looking at day-to-day human interactions

to fight communism or a Communist to change capitalism…in fact, it's vastly less convincing. It's an over-reaction born of weakness. The strong, those who don't need to be told who they are by others, stand in the middle." Outside the cold wind moaned, and even as he talked he was wondering about that fire. Was it built for them? Or

i. e. a society in which the largest number of persons are allowed to pursue the largest number of ends as freely as possible, in which these ends are themselves criticised as little as possible and the fervour with which such ends are held is not required to be bolstered up by some bogus rational or supernatural argument to prove the universal validity of the end."46

Never take advice!

I'd rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent

Mine first—mine last— mine even in the grave!

John D. Rockefeller was not only self-made but self-invented and already had unyielding faith in his own judgment.

always inner-directed and indifferent to the approval of others

I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.

Doing for people what they can, and ought to do for themselves, is a dangerous experiment," the great labor leader Samuel Gompers said. "In the last analysis, the welfare of the workers depends on their own initiative." The classic "liberal" believed individuals should be masters of their own destiny and the least government is the best government; these are precepts of freedom and self-reliance that are at the root of the American way and the American spirit.

The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.

Among the things he passed on to me were the belief that all men and women, regardless of their color or religion, are created equal and that individuals determine their own destiny; that is, it's largely their own ambition and hard work that determine their fate in life.

In my opinion, our downfall began when we started to think of ourselves as 'individuals'.