Individuality quotes
499 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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"If it were felt that the free development of individuality is one of the leading essentials of well-being; that it is not only a coordinate element with all that is designated by the terms civilisation, instruction, education, culture, but is itself a necessary part and condition of all those things; there would be no danger that liberty should be undervalued."
"Every atom in creation may be said to be acquainted with and married to every other, but with universal union there is a division sufficient in degree for the purposes of the most intense individuality."
"What makes your life different from the next n***a? There is something special about you, so let me help you bring out your individuality."
"A gesture cannot be regarded as the expression of an individual, as his creation (because no individual is capable of creating a fully original gesture, belonging to nobody else), nor can it even be regarded as that person's instrument; on the contrary, it is gestures that use us as their instruments, as their bearers and incarnations"
"Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality."
"Government is not a substitute for people, but simply the instrument through which they act. And if the individual fails to do his duty as a citizen, government becomes a very deadly instrument indeed."
"How we remember, what we remember, and why we remember form the most personal map of our individuality."
"I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals and I loathe humanity for its failure to live up to these possibilities."
"all outcast peoples struggle to be recognized as individuals. The damage of oppression is that it robs you of your individuality. You're just a faggot. Or whatever - fill in the blank. Everything you do is seen through the prism of your gayness or your womanness or your blackness by some people."
"An individual in despair despairs over something. . . . In despairing over something, he really despair[s] over himself, and now he wants to get rid of himself. Consequently, to despair over something is still not despair proper. . . . To despair over oneself, in despair to will to be rid of oneself-this is the formula for all despair."
"The fertilising conflict of individualities is the ultimate meaning of the personal life."
"A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too."
". . . For friendship implies individuality; whereas comradeship really implies the temporary subordination, if not the temporary swamping of individuality. Friends are the better for being two; but comrades are the better for being two million."
"The writer is committed when he plunges to the very depths of himself with the intent to disclose, not his individuality, but his person in the complex society that conditions and supports him."
"In proportion to the development of his individuality, each person becomes more valuable to himself, and is therefore capable of being more valuable to others. . . ."
"Trust me, when they read the [Oscar] results, my face was...frozen. But then I thought about it, and I just decided just to...let it go."
"Neither your family nor your culture gave you your personality. You created it yourself."
"If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes."
"There's no one in the world close to Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is a phenomenon. He's brilliant. Just because his physique belies that, don't underestimate him."
"The fifth freedom, the Freedom of Individual Enterprise, is the keystone of the arch on which the other Four Freedoms rest. This is what freedom means."
