#duality

If little else, the brain is an educational toy. The problem with possessing such an engaging toy is that other people want to play with it, too. Sometime they'd rather play with yours than theirs. Or they object if you play with yours in a different manner from the way they play with theirs. The result is, a few games out of a toy department of possibilities are universally and endlessly repeated. If you don't play some people's game, they say that you have "lost your marbles," not recognizing that, while Chinese checkers is indeed a fine pastime, a person may also play dominoes, chess, strip poker, tiddlywinks, drop-the-soap or Russian roulette with his brain. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#creativity #deviance #games #individuality #normalizing

We, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those year in the Home of the Students. It was not that the learning was too hard for us. It was that the learning was too easy. This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them. The Teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked at us. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#individuality #intelligence #objectivism #schooling #students

[E]ach of our voices has something unique to say. Not only should I not mold my life to the demands of external conformity; I can't even find the model by which to live outside myself. I can only find it within. ↗

— Charles Taylor

#individuality #individuals #self #uniqueness #life

Equality implies individuality. ↗

— Trey Anastasio

#implies #individuality

They thought that it would be a disgrace to go forth as a group. Each entered the forest at a point that he himself had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no path. If there is a path it is someone else's path and you are not on the adventure. ↗

— Joseph Campbell

#life #path #life

The world is not ready for some people when they show up, but that shouldn't stop anyone. ↗

— Ashly Lorenzana

#expression #freedom #individuality #life #norms

To know your soul is your own, that's what counts. ↗

— Marty Rubin

#independence #individuality #freedom

The citizens of Ludania would finally be free, no longer forced into a class system that determined what language they could speak, what jobs they could do, or who they could be ↗

— Kimberly Derting

#individuality #freedom

I am not a number; I am a free man. ↗

— Patrick McGoohan

#freedom #individuality #nonconformity #the-prisoner #freedom

To be a member of such a crowd ... is not much to be far removed from solitude; the freedom of everyone is assured by the freedom to which everyone else lays claim. ↗

— Remy de Gourmont

#democracy #freedom #individuality #mob #freedom