Christopher Morley Quotes

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

If everybody floated with the tide of talk, placidity would soon end in stagnation. It is the strong backward stroke which stirs the ripples, and gives animation and variety.

It would be positively boring if minds were in tune.

In a society that tries to standardize thinking, individuality is not highly prized.

A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes.

I was always a rebel in the sense that I always wanted to go my own road and do something that nobody else has done.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.

There's nothing worse than having everybody thinking alike, talking alike and having the same direction in mind. It gets stale that way.

We're not all supposed to think alike.

Don't look at all at what other people are doing. Think of what you're doing as completely fresh because if you imitate you're dead.

I never follow anybody's path, what they've done.

Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.

I've never tried to be accepted. When everyone is doing one thing, I've always had the instinct to go the other way. I don't understand how an individual with their own mind, their own values, and their own beliefs can be so willing to just follow what everybody else is doing. How can you make history doing what everybody else is doing?

I don't like following in people's footsteps; I like making my own trail.

I followed my own self and individuality so much that it automatically made me a game changer or set me apart from others. I did not think it was necessary to do things the way others are doing it.

I have a suspicion of lockstep and everyone looking in the same direction: that's a key character trait in me.

Never follow the crowd. Go where it's empty.

Teaching for creativity aims to encourage self-confidence, independence of mind, and the capacity to think for oneself.

To be different is not necessarily to be ugly; to have a different idea is not necessarily to be wrong. The worst possible thing is for all of us to begin to look and talk and act and think alike.

How could I be anything but a dissenter? Who wants the opinion of a group?

Question authority; think for yourself. Talk to people, do things unrelated to school - to come up with your own framework for living. The world is too complex and people are too different to be overly prescriptive about the details.

Since I was not able wholly to subscribe to any one set of beliefs advanced by any 'guru' I had to fall back on my own, however derivative.

Always do something different from the others.

Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.

The supreme lesson of any education should be to think for yourself and to be yourself; absent this attainment, education creates dangerous, stupefying conformity.