If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. H P Lovecraft
How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity. William S Burroughs
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are. David Icke
In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from. Peter Ustinov
Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent. Virginia Woolf
The respected intellectuals are those who conform and serve power interests. Noam Chomsky
The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on – because they’re dysfunctional to the institutions. Noam Chomsky
Thus the mind itself is bowed to the yoke: even in what people do for pleasure, conformity is the first thing thought of; they like in crowds; they exercise choice only among things that are commonly done: peculiarity of taste, eccentricity of conduct, are shunned equally with crimes: until by dint of not following their own nature they have no nature to follow: their human capacities are withered and starved: they become incapable of any strong wishes or native pleasures, and are generally without either opinions or feelings of home growth, or properly their own. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Conformity – the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something recognized as authority. Mark Twain
In any society, the artist has a responsibility. His effectiveness is certainly limited and a painter or writer cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of non-conformity alive. Thanks to them the powerful can never affirm that everyone agrees with their acts. That small difference is important. Luis Buñuel
There have been times, living in America of late, when it seemed I was back in the Communist Moscow I left a dozen years ago. Switch to cable TV and reporters breathlessly relay the latest wisdom from the usual unnamed ‘senior administration officials’ ... Everyone, it seems, is on-side and on-message. Just like it used to be when the hammer and sickle flew over the Kremlin. Rupert Cornwell, The Independent
To be one’s self and unafraid whether right or wrong is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity. Irving Wallace
Five hundred men just stood there and watched. All the great knights of the Seven Kingdoms, you think anyone said a word, lifted a finger? No, Lord Stark. Five hundred men and this room was silent as a crypt ... except for the screams, of course, and the Mad King laughing. And later, when I watched the Mad King die, I remembered him laughing as your father burned ... it felt like justice. Game of Thrones s1e3: Lord Snow, Jaime Lannister, HBO 2011
In such basic matters of faith, prophets do not apologize for requesting unity, indeed conformity. Jeffrey Dodo Holland, Morg General Conference April 2003
We bow down before no man. Two Spartans before Persian king, cited Herodotus ‘Histories’
Surveillance breeds conformity. Glenn Greenwald
Never run with the crowd, Margaret; go your own way. The Iron Lady 2011 starring Meryl Streep & Alexandra Roach & Jim Broadbent & Harry Lloyd & Anthony Head & Richard E Grant & Iain Glen & Olivia Colman & Nicholas Farrell & Susan Brown & Martin Wimbush et al, director Phyllida Lloyd
By 1951 the pressure to conform was immense … New York, the consumer capital of the world, was also home to the biggest rebellion against ’50s conformity. Dr James Fox, Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities I: New York, BBC 2014
Kerouac’s novel went on to become a bible for the beat generation, a handbook for all those who wished to rebel against American authority. ibid.
I think it’s important to understand that most of the educational programs that are implemented in the United States stem from the National Education Association. And the NEA was actually founded by John D Rockefeller. And John D Rockefeller I think voiced beliefs of this ruling elite that wants to try to homogenise our education system when he was quoted as saying, ‘I don’t want a nation of thinkers; I want a nation of workers.’ Jim Marrs, televised interview
Dumbing the individuals down to that point that he will be a good worker in the factory. ibid.
[The public school system is] usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek subservience to authority. Walter Karp
Taking into account the public’s regrettable lack of taste, it is incumbent upon you not to fit in. Janeane Garofalo, Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction
Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain Britain. So conform to it, or don’t come here. Tony Blair
In 1848 a popular new hymn for children, All Things Bright and Beautiful, portrayed a life that was almost feudal ... This was a divinely ordained universe in which everyone knew their place. Ian Hislop’s Age of the Do-Gooders II: Suffer the Little Children, BBC 2010