Conformity Quotes

“Never rebel for the sake of rebelling, but always rebel for the sake of truth.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch; his virtues and greatness belong to himself.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Evil would always come to me disguised in systems and dignified by law.”
― Pat Conroy, The Lords of Discipline

“When a mind is impressionable and has none too firm a hold on what is right, it must be rescued from the crowd: it is so easy for it to go over to the majority.”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“In addition to conformity as a way to relieve the anxiety springing from separateness, another factor of contemporary life must be considered: the role of the work routine and the pleasure routine. Man becomes a 'nine to fiver', he is part of the labour force, or the bureaucratic force of clerks and managers. He has little initiative, his tasks are prescribed by the organisation of the work; there is even little difference between those high up on the ladder and those on the bottom. They all perform tasks prescribed by the whole structure of the organisation, at a prescribed speed, and in a prescribed manner. Even the feelings are prescribed: cheerfulness, tolerance, reliability, ambition, and an ability to get along with everybody without friction. Fun is routinised in similar, although not quite as drastic ways. Books are selected by the book clubs, movies by the film and theatre owners and the advertising slogans paid for by them; the rest is also uniform: the Sunday ride in the car, the television session, the card game, the social parties. From birth to death, from Monday to Monday, from morning to evening - all activities are routinised, and prefabricated. How should a man caught up in this net of routine not forget that he is a man, a unique individual, one who is given only this one chance of living, with hopes and disappointments, with sorrow and fear, with the longing for love and the dread of the nothing and separateness?”
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

“Conformity requires us to minimize our differences for the greater good. We fear that if we don't conform, we will be abandoned, but there is no loneliness like having people only see you after you've erased yourself.”
― Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary

“All to often, on the long road up, young leaders become servants of what is rather than shapers of what might be.”
― John Gardner

“...all these things were part of the business of dreams. He had learned not to laugh at the advertisements offering to teach writing, cartooning, engineering, to add inches to the biceps and to develop the bust”
― Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts / A Cool Million

“What puzzled me was why I seemed to be so troubled by all these irregularities and exceptions to major rules while others blithely marched ahead.”
― Catherine Gildiner, Too Close to the Falls: A Memoir

“One must do no violence to nature, nor model it in conformity to any blindly formed chimera.”
― Janos Bolyai

“This is the enemy, what is irreversible, what has already reached the farthest of places. There is no going back. They can bomb bus-loads of tourists, burn the American flag, but they are not shooting the enemy. It is already with them, inside them, what makes them resentful, defensive, what makes them no longer confident of their vision of the world.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Translator

“FRUITS AND NUTS


Keep jumping around them like monkeys.
The clones,
Commercialized zombies,
And the TV junkies.
Keep throwing berries,
Twigs,
And nuts at them.
Until they wake up
To see what's up
And figure out why
We're laughing at 'em.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“I’ll be washed and ironed. I’ll be washed and ironed and starched.”
― Sherwood Anderson

“The cities were sucking all the life of the country into themselves and destroying it. Men were no longer individuals, but units in a vast machine, all cut to one pattern, with the same tastes and ideas, the same mass-produced education that did not educate but only pasted a veneer of catchwords over ignorance.”
― Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow

“The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is that it scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Hypocrisy may be the acknowledgement
of how one is falling short of one's
objectives and ideal behavior
but
at other times
hypocrisy may be the acknowledgement
that one is not meeting the external standards
of the systems
and the society
where they are trying to belong,
to "fit in"
and so
may choose to hide
aspects of their truest self.

Different kind of hypocrisy.

Can you recognize the difference?

Can you feel the difference?”
― Shellen Lubin

“Збуджена, приязно налаштована юрба озвалася на мої слова бурею оплесків і схвальних вигуків. Але я бачив, що не всі аплодували. Коли плеще в долоні тисяча, а двоє сидять склавши руки, то ці двоє переважують. Вони ж бо можуть доповісти куди треба, тоді як жоден із тисячі й пальцем не кивне, щоб захистити того, ким тільки що захоплювався.”
― Karin Boye, Kallocain

“Jobs promote neurotics because jobs are means-over-ends prospects. The goal does not matter; doing the methods that your boss demands matters, and you get promoted by flattering others and doing what they want, not what they need. Jobs enshrine neurosis in obedience and conformity.

amerika dot org”
― Brett Stevens

“Wokeism's impact on free speech is particularly pronounced in its tendency to enforce a rigid conformity of thought. When dissenting opinions are met with cancel culture, it fosters an environment where individuals fear expressing their true beliefs, hindering the open exchange of ideas that is essential for societal growth. It's crucial to uphold the principle that even controversial or satirical expressions, such as those found in comedy, contribute to the rich tapestry of dialogue and should not be muzzled in the name of ideological purity.”
― James William Steven Parker

“The pitfalls of wokeism are evident in its tendency to stifle free speech by canceling individuals who express opinions, including those conveyed through comedy. The attempt to enforce ideological conformity, even in the pursuit of social justice, risks creating an environment where dissent is quashed, hindering the vibrant exchange of ideas necessary for societal progress. Comedy, as a form of social commentary, should remain a space where artists can challenge the status quo without fear of cancellation, preserving the richness of diverse voices that contribute to the tapestry of free expression.”
― James William Steven Parker

“You’re not the type of lady inclined to blindly conform to societal norms.”
― Neda Aria, Bella Donna

“If everyone is dreaming the same thing, then no one is truly dreaming.”
― Joshua Krook , Black Friday 2050

“A question was a sign of insanity to them.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“Sonnet 1433

No such thing as an uncreative heart,
If you are alive, you are creative.
Unless cluttered by status quo,
Every heart is by nature creative.

Heart alive is heart creative,
Creativity is a sign of life.
Uncreativity is pulselessness,
Symptom of a heart anemic of life.

I am not creative, I'm just alive,
Creativity is just a byproduct.
If you don't impose limits of norm,
Every blood vessel is creation-duct.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“If you don't impose limits of norm, every blood vessel is creation duct.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“The idea of conformism among animals is increasingly supported for social behavior as well. One study tested both children and chimpanzees on generosity. The goal was to see if they were prepared to do a member of their own species a favor at no cost to themselves. They indeed did so, and their willingness increased if they themselves had received generosity from others—any others, not just their testing partner. Is kind behavior contagious? Love begets love, we say, or as the investigators put it more dryly, primates tend to adopt the most commonly perceived responses in the population.”
― Frans de Waal, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

“Defend principle, not prejudice.
Support reformation, not rigidity.
Be responsible, not reckless.
Support correction, not conformity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yüz Şiirlerin Yüzüğü (Ring of 100 Poems, Bilingual Edition): 100 Turkish Poems with Translations

“Comfort is an ever-ending hole.”
― Goitsemang Mvula

“We are all children, they thought, and none of us is equipped to deal with such an adversary.
We go through life under other people's protection.
We listen to instructions and try to follow them.
We don't know what's true and what's not. What's fair and unfair.
Our world is small. Our world is narrow.
We do as we are told.”
― Grégoire Courtois, The Laws of the Skies

“Don’t be so eager to be offended. The narcissism of small differences leads to the most boring conformity.”
― Todd Field: Lydia Tar