in-di-vid-u-al-ism,  n. the leading of one's life in one's own way. ~Webster's Dictionary

“Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

“To thine own self be true.” ~Shakespeare (Hamlet)

“To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” ~e. e. cummings

“Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.” ~Madonna

“You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.” ~Margaret Young

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” ~John F. Kennedy

“The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.” ~Dag Hammarskjöld

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” ~Henry David Thoreau

“It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.” ~Erasmus

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.” ~Robert Louis Stevenson

“You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.” ~Irish proverb

“It takes courage to be creative. Just as soon as you have a new idea, you are a minority of one.” ~E. Paul Torrence

“Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.” ~Erica Jong

“Mura n-oirean an caipín duit ná caith é.” (If the cap doesn't fit, don't wear it.) ~Irish proverb


Japanese proverbs

 We do well what we like well.
 You can change you clothes, not your character.
 Some pots have lids that fit; some do not.
 Don't try to graft the bamboo onto the pine.
 Others are others; I am I.
 Our minds are as various as our faces.
 Sooner or later you act out what you really think.



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