Quotes: Individual. Individuality.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Individual, Individuality
Individual 50 Life means individuality. "Any attempt at a definition of life must start out with the concept of ‘individual,’ otherwise it would not be life." Sir Charles Sherrington. 1940. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Individual 59 You will learn how much people think about you by how much you think about them. "He that considers how little he dwells upon the condition of others will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself." Sam. Johnson. 1750-2. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Individual 61 We are all alike in that we are all criticized. "We all think we are exceptional, and are surprised to find ourselves criticized just like anyone else." Comtesse Diane. 1908. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Individual 70 Pretending to be what you are not is a waste of time. "Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess." Sam. Johnson. 1750-2. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Individuality 139 We don't strive for internal perfection but for external appearances. "Not for internal perfection, but for external combinations and arrangements, for institutions, constitutions,--for mechanism of one sort or other, do they hope and struggle." Thomas Carlyle. From Signs of the Times. 1829. Gross, ed. Essays.

Individuality 148 We are skilled in managing external appearances, but are inferior to most ages in true soul and character. "By our skill in mechanism, it has come to pass, that in the management of external things we excel all other ages; while in whatever respects the pure moral nature, in true dignity of soul and character, we are perhaps inferior to most civilized ages." Thomas Carlyle. From Signs of the Times. 1829. Gross, ed. Essays.

Individuality 450 Are we turning into inanimate objects of conformity? "And perhaps the inanimate is beginning the slow process of subduing us again…all the emphasis is placed, not upon that power to resist and rebel which we were once supposed to have, but upon the ‘influences’ which ‘formed us’…in their view, we crystallize in obedience to some dictate from without instead of moving in conformity with something within." Joseph Wood Krutch. “The Colloid and the Crystal.” 1950. Gross, ed. Essays.

Individuality 451 Our unpredictability defines our humanity. " …insist that the most important thing about a man is not that part of him which is ‘the product of forces’ but that part, however small it may be, which enables him to become something other than what the most accomplished sociologist, working in conjunction with the most accomplished psychologist, could predict that he would be." Joseph Wood Krutch. “The Colloid and the Crystal.” 1950. Gross, ed. Essays.

Individuality 473 Once our heads are counted, we become part of government schemes to manipulate. "[Poets] know that once heads are counted, each owner of a head loses his personal identity and becomes a number in some government scheme: if not as a slave or serf, at least as a party to the device of majority voting, which smothers personal views." Robert Graves. “The Case for Xanthippe [Plato’s shrewish wife].” 1960. Gross, ed. Essays.

Individuality 473 Once we are counted we become part of cannon fodder. "An ominous count of manpower always precedes its translation into sword or cannon-fodder." Robert Graves. “The Case for Xanthippe [Plato’s shrewish wife].” 1960. Gross, ed. Essays.

Individuality 639 Once we surrender our private wills we become vulnerable to the first messiah who comes along. "For in our insistence on the surrender of private will (“inner-directedness”) to a conception of the human race as some teeming bacteria in the stream of time, unaffected by individual deeds, we have been made vulnerable…to the first Messiah who offers the young and bored some splendid prospect…." Gore Vidal. “Robert Graves and the Twelve Caesars.” 1959. Gross, ed. Essays.

Individuality 319 Don't be afraid to do what you want. Babbitt to his son Ted who has just eloped with Eunice Littlefield: "...I’ve never done a single thing I’ve wanted to in my whole life...don’t know’s I’ve accomplished anything except just get along...figure out I’ve made about a quarter of an inch out of a possible hundred rods...maybe you’ll carry things on further...don’t know...do get a kind of sneaking pleasure out of the fact that you knew what you wanted to do and did it...those folks in there will try to bully you, and tame you down...tell ‘em to go to the devil! I’ll back you; take your factory job...don’t be scared of the family...nor all of Zenith, nor of yourself, the way I’ve been; go ahead, old man...the world is yours!" Lewis, Babbitt.

Individuality 327 Babbitt does not know what true individuality is. Mark Shorer, Afterword: "...but how to cultivate a true individuality George F. Babbitt assuredly does not know, since he has no sense of what it is." Lewis, Babbitt.

Individuality 270 Material goods are symbolic expression of human personality. "This view gravely underestimates the importance of material goods as symbolic expressions of human personality differences." Toffler, Future Shock.

Individuals 52 Most people imitate other people. "[Most people’s] thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." Oscar Wilde. 1905. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.