quotations about conformity
Even though no one else discovers the nonconformity or enforces the rules against it, the individual who has committed the impropriety may himself act as the enforcer. He may brand himself as deviant because of what he has done and punish himself in one way or another for his behavior.
HOWARD S. BECKER
Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance
Conformity is inevitable when folks huddle together in rebellion.
HERBERT GOLD
"Protocols of the Elders of Bohemia"
One of the saddest things about conformity is the ghastly sort of non-conformity it breeds: the noisy protesting, the aggressive rebelliousness, the rigid counterfetishism.
LOUIS KRONENBERGER
Company Manners
You're afraid to see where it's leading. I'm not. I'll tell you. The world of the future. The world I want. A world of obedience and unity. A world where the thought of each man will not be his own, but an attempt to guess the thought in the brain of his neighbor who'll have no thought of his own but an attempt to guess the thought of the next neighbor who'll have no thought--and so on.
AYN RAND
The Fountainhead
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
Alas, everything that men say to one another is alike; the ideas they exchange are almost always the same, in their conversation. But inside all those isolated machines, what hidden recesses, what secret compartments! It is an entire world that each one carries within him, an unknown world that is born and dies in silence! What solitudes all these human bodies are!
ALFRED DE MUSSET
Fantasio
The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"Self-Reliance", Essays
Conformity--the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something recognized as authority.
MARK TWAIN
The Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain
A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
attributed, The Best Liberal Quotes Ever
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
The Wisdom of JFK
It takes far more courage to violate a custom than a law.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
The opposite of bravery is not cowardice but conformity.
ROBERT ANTHONY
The Ultimate Secrets of Total Self-Confidence
Conformity is the ape of harmony.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
journals, 1840
A "Normal" person is the sort of person that might be designed by a committee. You know, each person puts in a pretty color and it comes out gray.
ALAN SHERMAN
attributed, Quote Unquote
He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
attributed, Teachers of Wisdom
Sophistication is upscale conformity.
JAMES RICHARDSON
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays
Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?
JAMES THURBER
attributed, Oxymoronica
In individualistic cultures, conformity is seen as a sign of weakness ... people want to stand out and be different, and we admire people who differentiate themselves from the crowd.... In contrast, people in collectivistic cultures often place a particular value on fitting in with others and conforming to social norms, and therefore conformity is seen as a sign of self-control, maturity, tolerance, and respect for others.
CATHERINE A. SANDERSON
Social Psychology
Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
When you're a child, to stop you from following the crowd you're assaulted with the line "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" but when you're an adult and to be different is suddenly a crime, people seem to be saying, "Hey. Everyone else is jumping off a bridge. Why aren't you?"
STEVE TOLTZ
A Fraction of the Whole