Quotes About Nonconformity

She even had a kind of special position among men: she was an exception, she fitted none of the categories they commonly used when talking about girls; she wasn't a cock-teaser, a cold fish, an easy lay or a sneaky bi...; she was an honorary person. She had grown to share their contempt for most women.

I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic -- in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself.

Well-behaved women rarely make history.

There's a line in the picture where he (Johnny - The Wild One) snarls, 'Nobody tells me what to do.' That's exactly how I've felt all my life.

What a day when a man tell me what to do.

You say that my way of thinking cannot be tolerated? What of it? The man who alters his way of thinking to suit others is a fool. My way of thinking is the result of my reflections. It is part of my inner being, the way I am made. I do not contradict them, and would not even if I wished to. For my system, which you disapprove of, is also my greatest comfort in life, the source of all my happiness --- it means more to me than my life itself.

We were not meant to succumb to the dictates of should and have to, whether they come from outside or inside of ourselves. And if we do yield and submit to these demands, our actions arise from an energy that is devoid of life-giving joy.

They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.

Genius is not about conforming to societal norms, but about breaking free from them and forging new paths.

I never wear stockings or underclothes because I think it is important to breathe freely.

I love to do the things the censors won't pass.

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.

I am sure it must be true that people opt out of the mainstream society because they feel that there are going to be no rewards for them, if they stay.

Being like everyone else is highly overrated.

Disdain for authority is the bedrock of my character.

If [she] had come to prefer the company of odd ducks, it was possibly because they had no conception of oddity, or rather, they thought you were odd if you weren't.

I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.

The idiosyncrasies of giftedness are rarely seen as "different = interesting," but instead are deemed "different = wrong.

They realize they are intense, complex, and driven, but they have been taught that their strong personalities are perceived as excessive, too different from the norm, and consequently wrong. In a culture that often equates different with wrong, it's inevitable that gifted adults point a critical finger

To create, and to confront, one has to be an outcast.

Breaking from the herd is better than getting lost in it.

Follow your dreams, not the crowd.

Judging by his outlandish attire, he's some sort of free-thinking anarchist.

Living creatively is really important to maintain throughout your life. And living creatively doesn't mean only artistic creativity, although that's part of it. It means being yourself, not just complying with the wishes of other people.