Quotes about Individuality

Every person is different and has a different contribution to make. No one is destined to fail.

It is not that we love to be alone, but that we love to soar, and when we do soar, the company grows thinner and thinner until there is none at all. …We are not the less to aim at the summits though the multitude does not ascend them.

Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.

Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world.

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

If I should sell my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for.

We should be men first, and subjects afterward.

I would remind my countrymen that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour.