D. H. Lawrence Quotes

The whole system of society tells you what to do.

Something I've always written about is social expectations: that the eyes of the community are on you all the time, expecting you to line up with certain social norms, certain behaviours. Whenever you forgot about them, they'd be strongly reiterated to you, in no uncertain terms.

If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom.

We have been obliged to respond to the compulsions of our society.

In an over-organized society, the individual is altogether crushed out of existence. He gains the whole wealth of social thought around him and loses his own soul.

Consciously or unconsciously most of us adhere to what is expected of our role because we realize our social success depends on this. Some may refuse to play this game, but in the end they are marginalized and forced to play the outsider role, with limited options and decreasing freedom as they get older.

P.C. is just too Big Brother - telling me how I should act and feel.

Often we don't notice the stringent rules to which our culture subjects us.

Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences.

Young people in my generation were sort of in lockstep, and it wasn't just the '40s, either. In the '30s and in the '50s it was the same. No one ever dropped out unless he got sick or got kicked out.

I think behind closed doors people behave differently no matter what period we're looking at, because people have to stand up straight in public but can slouch behind closed doors - can you imagine wearing those corsets?

Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.

Society just has a way of inhibiting you, which is good and bad.

People are going to behave however the social norms permit, and beyond that.

Everyone says 'Anna Karenina' is about individual desire going against society, but I actually think the opposite is stronger: the way societal forces limit the expression of the individual.

You're not allowed to step out of whatever the rules are, politically, or socially, and they'll get you for it, they'll hunt you down. That's the really frightening thing.

The free, self-determining, self-developing soul may not walk its own path, however innocently, but must fit into the scheme and pattern …

When the people have no other tyrant, their own public opinion becomes one.

… she must have been very strictly brought up, she's so desperately anxious to do the wrong thing correctly.

Conformity is painful. You know, it's too tight. Conformity leads to rebellion. So a desire for happiness is in direct conflict with a desire for freedom.

We limit ourselves. We're told to act and behave in certain way from birth.

Even though I did things which were not in accordance with the society's norms, deep down, I am an orthodox woman.

How can we choose to selectively follow what we find comfortable and attack anybody who tries to break free from the norms that we choose to set?

People aren't autonomous creatures. They're under a lot of pressure themselves.

The constant pressure to bring about conformity is a dangerous thing.