Henry David Thoreau Quotes

A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority.

That's a good way to live, go against the wind.

It is human nature to instinctively rebel at obscurity or ordinariness.

How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity.

I am a contrarian.

So long as a minority conforms to the majority, it is not even a minority.

Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.

There's always stuff to rebel against.

I am in revolt against the age-old lie that the majority is always right.

For nonconformity the world will whip you with its displeasure.

The minute I was told what to do at any age, I did the opposite. Hopefully I'll do that for the rest of my life.

The only people who ever called me a rebel were people who wanted me to do what they wanted.

Power is never so overwhelming that there's no room for resistance.

I'm bad at doing what I'm told. I'm a born free thinker.

What is a rebel? A man who says no: but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation.

To me, Satan ultimately represents rebellion.

An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.

I've never been a yes man.

I've always had trouble with authority.

The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

I always seem to be singing against the grain.

I don't run behind authority.

I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.

I am against the whole cliche of the moment.

Ever since I was a small child, I've had this feeling - it's in my nature, and so it's not even pretentious - that if everyone's going one way, I will go the other, just by some kind of spirit of defiance.