Conformity & Thinking Quotes

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary. ~Albert Einstein

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. ~Bertrand RussellNot all those who wander are lost. ~J.R.R. Tolkien

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. ~Albert Einstein

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something in your life. ~Winston Churchill

Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road. ~Voltaire

The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. ~J.K. Galbraith

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them. ~George Bernard Shaw

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. ~Mark Twain

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common. ~John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

This is how humans are: we question all our beliefs, except for the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question. ~Orson Scott Card

Doubt is healthy. It tests one's convictions. ~From the movie HauntedToo often we...enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. ~John F. Kennedy

Before you can break out of prison, you must first realize you're locked up. ~Unknown

One who walks in another's tracks leaves no footprints. ~ProverbI

t is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. ~Herman Melville

We need - and should encourage and honour - not only discoverers of facts hitherto unknown but explorers of ideas and rethinkers of values. ~Walter Moberly, The Crisis in the University

If you don't control your mind, someone else will. ~John Allston

Be neither a conformist or a rebel, for they are really the same thing. Find your own path, and stay on it. ~Paul Vixie

Be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your brains fall out. ~Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

The problem with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than their minds. ~Walter Duranty

I guess I've spent my life listening to what wasn't being said. ~Eli Khamarov, America Explained!

Human beings, for all their pretensions, have a remarkable propensity for lending themselves to classification somewhere within neatly labeled categories. Even the outrageous exceptions may be classified as outrageous exceptions! ~W.J. Reichmann

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education. ~Wilson Mizner

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. ~Eric Hoffer

If you keep doing things like you've always done them, what you'll get is what you've already got. ~Unknown

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory. ~Paul Fix

When leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders. ~Veterans Fast for Life

Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity; and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom. ~George Bernard Shaw

What we call human nature in actuality is human habit. ~Jewel, Pieces of You

Never accept the proposition that just because a solution satisfies a problem, that it must be the only solution. ~Raymond E. Feist

It's a rash man who reaches a conclusion before he gets to it. ~Jacob Levin

Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt. ~Clarence Darrow

Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature. ~George Bernard Shaw

Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us - and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along. ~Carl Sagan, The Fine Art of Baloney Detection

My theory is that the hardest work anyone does in life is to appear normal. ~From the movie Ed TV

I don't rent space to anyone in my head. ~Anonymous man on Candid Camera, answering Allen Funt's question about why he had not gotten upset

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. ~Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn, 1881

Only dead fish swim with the stream. ~Malcolm Muggeridge

Impartial observers from other planets would consider ours an utterly bizarre enclave if it were populated by birds, defined as flying animals, that nevertheless rarely or never actually flew. They would also be perplexed if they encountered in our seas, lakes, rivers, and ponds, creatures defined as swimmers that never did any swimming. But they would be even more surprised to encounter a species defined as a thinking animal if, in fact, the creature very rarely indulged in actual thinking. ~Steve Allen

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. ~George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists

Just because something is tradition doesn't make it right. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book

And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps. ~H.L. Mencken

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. ~Alexander Hamilton

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine. ~Fritz Perls

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. ~Anatole France

Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are. ~Quentin Crisp

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it - even if I have said it - unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. ~Buddha

If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. ~Juan Ramon Jimenez

Emancipate yourself from mental slaveryNone but ourselves can free our minds.~Bob Marley

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. ~John Cage

No. ~President Jimmy Carter's daughter Amy, when asked if she had any message for the children of America

The most damaging phrase in the language is: "It's always been done that way." ~Grace Hopper

The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them. ~Albert Einstein, letter to Sigmund Freud, 30 July 1932

The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone. ~Henrik IbsenConformity is that jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. ~John F. Kennedy

No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. ~Niels Bohr

Mad, adj.: Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence. ~Ambrose Bierce

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. ~Voltaire

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model. ~Vincent Van Gogh

If you believe everything you read, you better not read. ~Japanese proverb

I merely observe that all living things are manipulated. As long as there is a will, it is bent and twisted constantly. Only the dead are allowed the luxury of freedom, and then only because they want nothing, and therefore can't be thwarted. ~Orson Scott Card

You don't have to hold a position in order to be a leader. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book

I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side - I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts. ~Bethania McKenstry

What luck for rulers, that men do not think. ~Adolph Hitler

If...the machine of government...is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. ~Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobediance, 1849

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. ~Bertrand Russell

The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy and, in our age, monomedicine. The belief that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man: members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity. ~Thomas Szasz

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. ~Albert Einstein

Never assume the obvious is true. ~William Safire

We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles. ~Mark Twain

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say. ~Marshall McLuhan

History is particularly important in throwing light on the source of our attitudes about sex because many of the assumptions we make are not necessarily scientific or rational but holdovers of past belief systems that are no longer held by modern society. ~Vern BulloughA great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. ~William James

To be a genuine individualist requires a great deal of strength and courage. It is never easy to chart new territory, to cross new frontiers, or to introduce subtle shadings to an established color. ~Toller Cranston

To be a fashionable woman is to know yourself, know what you represent, and know what works for you. To be "in fashion" could be a disaster on 90 percent of women. You are not a page out of Vogue. ~Unknown

My manner of thinking, so you say, cannot be approved. Do you suppose I care? A poor fool indeed is he who adopts a manner of thinking for others! My manner of thinking stems straight from my considered reflections; it holds with my existence, with the way I am made. It is not in my power to alter it; and were it, I'd not do so. ~Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade

Integrity has no need of rules. ~Albert Camus

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. ~George Bernard Shaw

Ours is the age which is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. ~Howard Mumford Jones

My uncle ordered popoversfrom the restaurant's bill of fare.And, when they were served,he regarded them with a penetrating stare.Then he spoke great words of wisdomas he sat there on that chair:"To eat these things," said my uncle,"You must exercise great care.You may swallow down what's solid,but you must spit out the air!"And as you partake of the world's bill of fare,that's darned good advice to follow.Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.And be careful what you swallow.~Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), from a commencement address

What makes you think that human beings are sentient and aware? There's no evidence for it. Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their "beliefs." The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is a self-congratulatory delusion. ~Michael Crichton, The Lost World

Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was. ~Margaret Mitchell