Sandra Bernhard Quotes

I'm interested in the ongoing war between the individual and community. That inner dissent against whatever group is surrounding you. No one wants to cede their selfhood to a group, right? And yet no one can exactly live outside the group, either. Even the most obstinate survivalist probably lives in some telepathic communion with all the other obstinate survivalists out there in the woods.

The first rule of survival is: Make your own rules. The hell anyone thinks about the way you're acting; listen only to yourself.

I always went my own road and on my own legs where I had a mind to go.

Individualism is going around these days in uniform, handing out the party line on individualism.

America's about individuals, not about averages or groups.

It is the individual's task to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet. All collective identities . . . interfere with the fulfillment of this task. Such collective identities are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible. . . .

Hold on to your own ideal. . . . Above all, never attempt to guide or rule others, or, as the Yankees say, "boss" others. Be the servant of all.

I think, there are people for whom freedom is a bigger, more important thing than stability.

A man of independent judgment is a man of profound self-esteem.

Whoever regards human beings as a herd and flees them as swiftly as he can will no doubt be overtaken by them and impaled on theirhorns.

A self-willed man obeys a different law, the one law I, too, hold absolutely sacred the human law in himself, his own individual will.

I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.

The leftist is anti-individualistic... He is not the sort of person who has an inner sense of confidence in his own ability to solve his own problems and satisfy his own needs.

I couldn't care less what anybody says about me. I live my life, especially my personal life, strictly for myself... Whatever you do, you're going to be criticized. I feel the one sensible thing you can do is try to live in a way that pleases you.

I think the idea of individualism has become more dominating in our society. You can even see it by our political system: how people vote, the job situation, the sociological evolution that's happening, what's happening in the Middle East and so forth.

I have only one doctrine, the infinitude of the private man.

Individualism regards man-every man-as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being.

It would be very hard for me to do things somebody else's way.

If I'd wanted to be an individual, I'd have taken up tennis.

Her own contempt for any forms of pressure society might put on her was so profound and instinctive that she as instinctively despised anyone who paid tribute to them.

The anarch wages his own wars, even when marching in rank and file

Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn’t done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity.

Figuring things out for yourself is the only freedom anyone really has. Use that freedom.

A lofty sense of independence is, in man, the best privilege of his nature.

It's better to live as your own man, than as a fool in someone else's dream.