Mahershala Ali Quotes

For nonconformity the world will whip you with its displeasure.

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

I refuse to follow the rules where society tries to control people with low self esteem.

All my life I've been rowing against the tide. What can I do? It seems I was born that way.

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is.

I didn't rebel in the way a lot of people do.

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

How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity.

You're made aware of what the industry is and what you need to conform to; I don't fit that, and I'm never going to.

All the things that people like me supposedly don't do, I do.

If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it.

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

Who am I to blow against the wind?

I am against the whole cliche of the moment.

When someone tells me not to do something, I'll do it more.

The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle: the roar of the crowd on the one side, and the voice of your conscience on the other.

I hope I don't have to buck the system. But if it requires bucking, I will do it.

I wasn't a rebel.

Reaction - a boat which is going against the current but which does not prevent the river from flowing on.

I just get really bored with sticking to the norm and having the proper conservative image. That's just so not me.

At a certain point, to remain slightly tangential to wherever I was became a way of 'being Tony': by not being anything that everyone else was.

I don't want to follow the herd.

You know, not to sound corny or nuthin', but I felt like a fighter comin' up, man. I felt like, you know, I'm being attacked for this reason or that reason, and I gotta fight my way through this.

Discipline is tough for a guy who is a rebel.

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.