quotations about individuality
There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality.
CLINT EASTWOOD
Wild Open Spaces
Both body and life are predetermined, and the man has nothing to say in the matter: the individual is predetermined by the Great Will. The man is thus predestined, through the fact of his individuality, to a possible specific destiny; but, after the individuality is determined, he is given over to his own will, and his destiny is put into his own hands.
JOHN PHELPS FRUIT
"The Destiny of Marriage: Portia and the Caskets"
Understanding the power of choice is of infinite importance. We were created with the power of individuality, with the freedom to think and to act. Since humanity's creation, though, this freedom has been under attack. To some, freedom is a threat or problem that must be controlled. Freedom, these would say, is a nuisance that leads to trouble. Others, though, see this freedom or power as essential and have gone to great lengths to preserve it, even to the point of shedding their own blood in its defense. This freedom, the power of choice, is the issue of a great cosmic, universal controversy that has lasted for millennia. Even though incredible effort and resources have been devoted to eradicating this freedom, it has been preserved. Choice survives.
JIM ROY
Soul Shapers
In our society today, individuality is encouraged in some ways but discouraged in others. The key to bringing out the true essence of individuality is to encourage people to live their purpose and share their unique gifts for the good of others.
CATHY HAIMS
In Love and Truth
Of individuality I conclude, that it inheres as to function not in separation, but in association, and not in independence, but in interdependence; and as to thought, in self-accountableness, but joined with reverence for all others; and as to behavior, in absolute liberty, so the social aim be not abused. Thus in all, in function, in thinking, in behavior, individuality is the final finishing and supple shaping of a part which fits by its special figure into the operation of the whole.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
"Of Individuality", Essays
Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.
TALLULAH BANKHEAD
Tallulah: My Autobiography
I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals and I loathe humanity for its failure to live up to these possibilities.
AYN RAND
publicity form, 1936
Man becomes virtually an automaton in the loss of his individuality and responsibility. He is the harp of a thousand strings played upon by a divine hand, but not a man!
JOHN GRIER HIBBEN
The Problems of Philosophy
Our greatest endeavor must be to make ourselves irreplaceable.
MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO
Tragic Sense of Life
Who can say more than this rich praise, that you alone are you.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
"Sonnet 84"
By the term individual I shall mean that in which each of us is peculiarly himself. I shall emphasize not what is common is us, but what is uncommon, and this leads me to a restatement of our question. In considering what is happening to the individual, I shall discuss what in modern civilization is happening to the uncommon in us. Are we becoming more common or more uncommon? Are the common people destroying the uncommon? Is the public self of us crushing out the personal self? Are we being directed more from without than from within? As our group memberships grow larger, do we as persons tend to grow smaller? Do the tendencies of the present day, mass movements, social organization, publicity, public education, emphasize the unique in man, or enhance the dominance of undifferentiated man acting as mass?
EVERETT DEAN MARTIN
The Conflict of the Individual and the Mass in the Modern World
My lines all curve. I tend to connect the wrong dots.
DAVID LEVITHAN
Boy Meets Boy
When we lack ourselves, we lack everything.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Losing faith in your own singularity is the start of wisdom, I suppose; also the first announcement of death.
PETER CONRAD
Down Under
It is our birthright to live and acknowledge our specialness, our uniqueness, our contribution to life, not because we need others to recognise it, but simply because it is real.
GITA BELLIN
Amazing Grace Series: Compassion
Individuality is a step in advance of Genius.
JAMES LOGAN GORDON, I
Myself
The more fully the individual is developed, the greater his freedom.
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN
attributed, The Philosophy of Bakunin
Individuality in opinion, or, what is more, in thinking, is simply one with thinking at all; for he who thinks thereby looks at the thing or the fact itself and takes its measure by observation directly, not content with the measures of others.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
"Of Individuality", Essays
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing
You can be nobody but yourself. You cannot hide away, nor be lost in any crowd. You carry the glory and the burden of your individuality.
HENRY WHITNEY BELLOWS
Twenty-Four Sermons Preached in All Souls Church, New York