Gene Roddenberry Quotes

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

It would be positively boring if minds were in tune.

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

The American people ... have a stake in con-conformity, for they know that the American genius is non-conformist.

It were not best that we should all think alike.

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

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

Everybody has their own style. If you went to the movies every week and everybody acted the same way Tom Cruise did, boy, wouldn't that suck?

The educator should do anything but advise the child to do what everybody does. He should rather rejoice when he sees in the child tendencies to deviation.

I see the world become so uniform. Everybody has to be the same. I like people who are different.

Unless you hit your television with a sledgehammer, you're not going to be able to be an individual.

Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration.

The movies I do have to be different in some way. Nothing vanilla will do.

I think people are afraid to be original.

You do not move forward by following convention. You celebrate those who are different, who are not burdened by 'normality.'

Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist.

An opinion, though it is original, does not necessarily differ from the accepted opinion; the important thing is that it does not try to conform to it.

Don't be afraid to be unique or speak your mind, because that's what makes you different from everyone else.

Every day I wake up and that’s my goal, to be on a constant quest for knowledge and do something different, being unique and being uncommon.

When you're young, and even at times when you're older, it's hard to fathom this: What needs to be nurtured is the stuff that's different, that sets you apart from the pack, rather than the stuff that helps you blend in.

Nature, who permits no two leaves to be exactly alike, has given a still greater diversity to human minds. Imitation, then, is a double murder; for it deprives both copy and original of their primitive existence.

If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox way, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them.They will find away to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.

I think in a world where everyone wants to categorize and compartmentalize and rationalize, it's OK to be different.

Human beings never think for themselves. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.

Stay Weird, Stay Different.