John Stuart Mill Quotes

Self-expression is the dominant necessity of human nature.

There is truth in the high opinion that in so far as a man conforms, he ceases to exist.

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

A character is a completely fashioned will.

We all want to be special, to stand out; there's nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with, because we're unique to start with. But we then go through some sort of boot camp from the age of zero to about 18 where we learn everything we can about how not to be unique.

The fact is that all of us have only one personality, and we wring it out like a dishtowel. You are what you are.

All greatness of character is dependent on individuality.

I just feel like people are who they are.

For me, an actor is really, first and foremost, a person and an individual, more than they are an actor or a professional.

This race and this country and this life produced me, he said. I shall express myself as I am.

As nature made every man with a nose and eyes of his own, she gave him a character of his own, too; and yet we, O foolish race! must try our very best to ape some one or two of our neighbors, whose ideas fit us no more than their breeches!

What does it mean to be yourself?” he asked. “If it means to do what you think you ought to do, then you’re doing that already. If it means to act like you’re exempt from society’s influence, that’s the worst advice in the world; you would probably stop bathing and wearing clothes. The advice to ‘be yourself’ is obviously nonsense. But our brains accept this tripe as wisdom because it is more comfortable to believe we have a strategy for life than to believe we have no idea how to behave.

We all came into this world naked. The rest is all drag.

We should know mankind better if we were not so anxious to resemble one another.

Every act is an act of self definition.

Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, the necessity of being the man you are and not another. You are free to be that man, but not another.

People are expecting me to be a certain way all the time. It's not like if I come in here with a totally different personality and right before the camera starts they see this new character. It confuses everything. Life has a consensus reality to it and if you use that to your advantage it makes it much easier.

I needed freedom to really express myself. That's really what Justified is about.

I'm still very much Kate.

All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity.

Be yourself is about the worst advice you can give to some people.

We get criticized for showing no personality, then we get penalized when we do.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that's always existed.

People are incorrigibly themselves.

Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.