Conformity Quotes

“Prime numbers are divisible only by 1 and by themselves. They hold their place in the infinite series of natural numbers, squashed, like all numbers, between two others, but one step further than the rest. They are suspicious, solitary numbers, which is why Mattia thought they were wonderful. Sometimes he thought that they had ended up in that sequence by mistake, that they'd been trapped, like pearls strung on a necklace. Other times he suspected that they too would have preferred to be like all others, just ordinary numbers, but for some reason they couldn't do it. This second thought struck him mostly at night, in the chaotic interweaving of images that comes before sleep, when the mind is too weak to tell itself lies.”
― Paolo Giordano, The Solitude of Prime Numbers

“We are not supposed to all be the same, feel the same, think the same, and believe the same. The key to continued expansion of our Universe lies in diversity, not in conformity and coercion. Conventionality is the death of creation.”
― Anthon St. Maarten, Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny

“It then becomes necessary to stop short and make a choice: Either/Or. Either one drifts with their absurd system of ideas, believing that this is the human community. Or one dissents totally from their system of ideas and stands as a lonely human being. (But luckily one notices that the others are in the same crisis and making the same choices.)”
― Paul Goodman, Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized System

“Curiosity is very important I think, and I think too much of education, starting with childhood education, is either designed to kill curiosity or it works out that way anyway.”
― Myles Horton, We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change

“The common person fears to think beyond the common.”
― Bryant McGill

“The societies kids naturally form are tribal. Gangs, clubs, packs. But we're herded into schools and terrified into behaving. Taught how we're supposed to pretend to be, taught to parrot all kinds of nonsense at the flick of a switch, taught to keep our heads down and our elbows in and shut off our minds and shut off our sex. We learn we can't even piss when we have to. That's how we learn to be plastic and dumb.”
― Marge Piercy, Dance the Eagle to Sleep

“One of the useful things about age is realizing conventional wisdom is often simply inertia with a candy coating of conformity.”
― Anna Quindlen, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

“The problem with this generation is they are so quick to define who they are in the process of searching. It is their need for immediate acceptance that keeps them from exploring further.”
― Shannon Alder

“I'd trapped myself in a script.... But to be scripted at all is to be prepackaged, programmed, pinned to a page. Only the unwritten can truly live a life. So who I was, what I was, had to be unwritten.”
― David James Duncan, The Brothers K

“Conformity is a problem for many small groups. Members put a higher priority on cohesion than on coming up with a well-reasoned choice. They pressure dissenters, shield themselves from negative feedback, keep silent when they disagree ...”
― Craig E. Johnson, Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow

“Christians should be cultural and intellectual thermostats, exulting in opposition, iconoclasm,and balancing insights.”
― Gene Edward Veith Jr., Loving God with All Your Mind: Thinking as a Christian in the Postmodern World