We are half ruined by conformity, but we should be wholly ruined without it.

We arrange our lives-even the best and boldest men and women that exist, just as much as the most limited-with reference to what society conventionally rules and makes right.

We are all born originals - why is it so many of us die copies?

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?

He who goes against the fashion is himself its slave.

Why do you have to be a non-conformist like everybody else?

He who lives among dogs must learn to pant.

A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable.