Fitting In Quotes

“But then I have always been somewhat of a square peg in a round hole.”
― Cressida Cowell, How to Speak Dragonese

“Very deep. You should send that in to the Reader's Digest. They've got a page for people like you.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“I am too much alien and not enough monkey to fit in here.”
― Melissa St. Hilaire

“I myself am opaque, for some reason. Their eyes cannot see me. Yes, that's it: The world is autistic with respect to me.”
― Anne Nesbet, The Cabinet of Earths

“Omigosh—I'm a squash!”
― Dave Horowitz, The Ugly Pumpkin

“How can I expect readers to know who I am if I do not tell them about my family, my friends, the relationships in my life? Who am I if not where I fit in the world, where I fit in the lives of the people dear to me?”
― Rabih Alameddine, I, The Divine: A Novel in First Chapters

“Maybe it's wrong-footed trying to fit people into the world, rather than trying to make the world a better place for people.

[as quoted in "Brain Gain" by Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 4/27/09 issue]”
― Paul McHugh

“When we came and rented the North Perth home, my father had a little ice chest, and on top of the ice chest was a radio. And we were sitting at our lunch time on Sunday eating dinner after church, and my Mum says, ‘Look where we’ve ended up. We’ve got a table cloth on our table, we’ve got food on our plate, and we’re listening to music.’ That was a big thing for my mother. - Mrs Helen Doropoulos, Greece”
― Peter Brune, Suffering, Redemption and Triumph: The first wave of post-war Australian immigrants 1945-66

“Cheers to all the Rebels out there who care way too much about Art and Truth and Magic to fall in line with the mundane task of fitting in.”
― Scott Stabile

“Many of us have gotten so used to playing
to the expectations of society, of our families,
of our friends, and of our minds, that we don’t
even allow ourselves to consider who we really
are or what we really need. We ignore the calls
of our hearts, giving our lives, instead, to the
demands of an outside world built on fitting in.
We can stop this, right now. We can choose to
listen to ourselves, to heed our deepest callings,
whatever they are. We can give ourselves the
freedom to be whoever the hell we want to be
in this world. Right now, if we choose to.
And why wouldn’t we?”
― Scott Stabile

“But you don't have to fit in to be okay. Believe me! I am the not-fitting-in world expert. I have not fit in in maybe five different countries so far. I am homelandless. I even make mistakes when I speak Bulgarian. But it's not big deal, not really. It's not the end of the world, right? It's okay.”
― Anne Nesbet, The Cabinet of Earths

“Want to know the truth about belonging?

It takes courage to belong. It takes bravery to show up in your own skin.

It’s easy to fit in. It’s easy to blend in and hide your outrageousness.

And it’s also the easiest way to lose the precious parts of you.

You deserve to be seen. You deserve to be heard. You deserve to be known for the real deal that you are.

Stop taking the easy way out. Stop trying to fit in.

The best place in life is where you’re already okay.

Come home to you. It’s where you belong.”
― Anne Bechard

“She had met people who had tried to fit in. She had met people who tried to stand out. But until then she had never met anyone who simply tried to be themselves without expecting anything from those around
them. It was a refreshing experience.”
― Millie Florence, Honey Butter

“The world accommodates you for fitting in, but only rewards you for standing out.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

“It was the fact that they tried so hard that doomed them.”
― Alexandra Robbins, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School

“It's hard to put into words what sometimes you pick up in the ether, the quiet, cruel nuances of not belonging- the subtle cues that tell you to not risk anything, to find your people and just stay put.”
― Michelle Obama, Becoming

“Jack was the kind of guy you could take into any situation and he would figure out how to fit in. Wayne, not so much. So they didn't really ever bond."
"You know what we therapists say about people who fit in in every situation?"
"What?"
"They have no inherent genuine personality. They aren't themselves, they are only who they think the current audience expects them to be. Flawed though some of Wayne's actions may seem to you, at the end of the day he sounds like someone who isn't afraid to just be himself, all day, every day. That takes a fairly strong sense of self, to not go against your natural instincts, to not try to make yourself into something you aren't in order to be better liked or more homogenous."
"I never thought about it that way."
"Most people don't. But if you look at some of the truly great minds and artists of our history, they are often people who didn't necessarily fit, who were outside the norm. Some of them had actual disorders, many of the great minds are now presumed to have some level of Asperger's or low-level autistic tendencies, but a lot of them were just left of center."
"Are you saying that Wayne is a secret genius? Do I have a Jobs or Spielberg or something on my hands?"
"Of course not. I'm just saying that fitting in, or caring about fitting in, isn't necessarily in and of itself the world's most desirable trait.”
― Stacey Ballis, Out to Lunch

“I may not want to appear different than every other rider on this field, but I already am.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“The least affected can be those who are the most offended.”
― Pixetica

“In the realm of offence, it is often those least affected who wield the greatest reaction”
― Pixetica

“Work brought my family to Tennessee. I was just a kid. We lived in a green house off Old McClure Road. A big mimosa tree in the yard. Fern-like leaves and summer blooms. It reminded me of Florida. The mimosa was an invasive species there. State wanted them cut down. But we left ours alone. A tree growing where it should not be. Like my family. We were invasive too.”
― Damon Thomas

“Work brought my family to Tennessee. I was just a kid. We lived in a green house off Old McClure Road. A big mimosa tree in the yard. Fern-like leaves and summer blooms. It reminded me of Florida. The mimosa was an invasive species there. State wanted them cut down. But we left ours alone. A tree growing where it should not be. Like my family. We were invasive too.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“It’s such a relief to realize that you don’t have to fit yourself to someone else’s pattern.”
― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928

“For somebody to be on a search means he or she is involved with these subversive topics, reading and comparing notes with allies, asking questions, daydreaming, brooding.

Even though you have homework to do.

So you--I--stuck to the family plan for a long time, because your success made everyone else so happy, even if you made yourself frantic and half dead trying to achieve it. You couldn't win at this game, and you couldn't stop trying. At least it was a home to return to, no matter how erratic, which is better than no home.”
― Anne Lamott, Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope, and Repair

“Money, success, integration into a solid, recognised world - all these factors contribute to an economy of the self. There is no longer any need to think about your needs, your mood, your behaviour, your friends, or your life, no need to understand or to look any further: the world you're in provides all that right away.”
― Martin Page, How I Became Stupid

“I may not know where I fit in with my family, but I finally know where I fit in with myself.”
― Auriane Desombre, The Sister Split

“An immigrant? An immigrant feels like when you go to the movies and you get there late. You can’t see, and the people are not happy you’re there. The movie has already started, and you missed parts. You have a lot of catching up to do if you’re going to get it, and you need to find your place in the dark without stepping on people. Then, if you find your place, shut up and pay attention; you might get what the movie is all about.”
― Amarilys Gacio Rassler, Cuban American Dancing On The Hyphen

“Yet she could never seem to learn the rules that other kids played by, the rules that defined how you were supposed to talk and how you were supposed to look and what you were supposed to be interested in. Rules that defined how smart was too smart.”
― Dashka Slater, The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

“I've been trying to be like everybody else for the last thirty-one years. If it was possible, I think I'd have done it already.”
― Holly Smale, Cassandra in Reverse

“Whether reaching for fame or just fitting in with a crowd, let us not lose sight of those dearest to us and common sense.”
― Aegelis, Specks of Shadows, Flecks of Light