Ellen DeGeneres Quotes

You're never going to get beyond other people's preconceptions of what you are and what you're about.

People forget that stereotypes aren’t bad because they are always untrue. Stereotypes are bad because they are not always true. If we allow ourselves to judge another based on a stereotype, we have allowed a gross generalization to replace our own thinking.

Stereotypes abound when there is distance. They are an invention, a pretense that one knows when the steps that would make real knowing possible cannot be taken or are not allowed.

I think it's just easier for people to put you in a box or a lane because you look similar. I think that's unfair for anybody in any situation.

I don't believe in stereotypes. Most of the time, stereotypes are just that.

It's so easy for people to stick a label on you, and then that taints everything you touch.

Sometimes stereotyping happens not because of any nefarious reasons but rather because people don't know who you are or where you come from, so they go for the broad strokes about you, your culture, your faith, all that.

People look at you, and they've got just the perfect little box for you, the perfect category. Call you a redneck. Call you a hillbilly. Like those were insults.

Far from being a loathsome aberration that ought to be purged from our behavior, it turns out that stereotypes are essential life tools, are accurate much more often than not.

Stereotypes and perceptions have their real effects.

The reality that everyone is stereotyped - every one gets typecast, so you have to work to get out of that.

Putting labels on entire groups of people makes things much simpler. If all New Yorkers are pushy, or all politicians are dishonest, we don't have to do the hard work of figuring out who's who.

People are quick to pigeonhole you.

We all judge people.

We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one!

There's nothing the world loves more than a ready-made description which they can hang on to a man, and so save themselves all trouble in future.

You don't pigeonhole yourself, people pigeonhole you. If the world is not at a place yet where it can just be like, "This music is gay and it's music," then it's not my fault that it gets pigeonholed, it's not the people in the band's fault, it's because people won't just let music be music, people who need to put a name on something or to critique something.

Consider prejudice. Once a person begins to accept a stereotype of a particular group, that "thought" becomes an active agent, "participating" in shaping how he or she interacts with another person who falls in that stereotyped class. In turn, the tone of their interaction influences the other person's behaviour. The prejudiced person can't see how his prejudice shapes what he "sees" and how he acts. In some sense, if he did, he would no longer be prejudiced. To operate, the "thought" of prejudice must remain hidden to its holder

And it is impossible to treat human beings as human beings if you label them, if you term them, if you give them a name as Hindus, Russians, or what you will. It is so much easier to label people, for then you can pass by and kick them, drop a bomb on India or Japan.

Stereotypes are fast and easy, but they are lies, and the truth takes its time.

Certain names always awake certain prejudices.

The moment you place a label on someone, you begin to treat him or her accordingly.

I became stereotyped.

I hate stereotypes and I hate cliche.

I'm not afraid of stereotypes. There are some truths to it - but the problem is that people keep sort of owning that one thing to be the truth.