Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.

The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

I always tried so hard to fit in, and then I figured out that I didn't want to fit.

Conforming is not cool.

Rather be dead than cool.

I tried to be different; I didn't want to be like everybody else.

I can only be myself, and if I have to suffer for that, that's okay, because to pretend to be somebody else - I tried that, it's terrible.

I have been told too much - to talk less, to keep my opinions to myself, to not sound intelligent - all this was told to me so that I could fit in. But I never thought I fit in anyway. So if you don't fit in, at least stand out.

I tried to be really nice and like the things other people liked and do the things other people were supposed to do, and what you find out is that they're going to bully you anyway. And I thought, 'You know what? If I'm going to get bullied anyway, I might as well get bullied for making a difference in the world.'

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.

I went to public school for like, one day. I don't get it. Everybody tries to be exactly the same. I think being an outsider is a good thing.

People who follow all the rules and chase every trend tend to get forgotten - they look great, but they're not as memorable.

I can show up at a Goldman Sachs conference wearing a Judas Priest T-shirt - and I have - while everyone else is wearing the same dress.

There's only one drummer. We all travel to his beat. Well, I couldn't sing his song. Because for me, it wasn't a truthful statement. Well, Linda sang it, and it was a monster for her.

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is.

You were once wild here. Don't let them tame you.

I never wanted to write the sort of song that said, 'Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!'

People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.

There are no exceptions to the rule that everybody likes to be an exception to the rule.

The idea is not to please the most amount of people. Growing up in Versailles, the idea was to please the least amount of people.

The Band was rebelling against the rebellion. The rebellion went to a place where it became too obvious, too trendy, like you were just following the pack. So it was our choice to get off the bandwagon - no pun intended - and do things that were in our background and what was the most honest thing to do.

Normal is fading away. Governments and industries and schools like normal, because it's easier, it scales and it's profitable. But people don't like it - we want to be who we are, not who some marketer tells us to be.

It is human nature to instinctively rebel at obscurity or ordinariness.