A human being too, is many things. Whatever makes up the air, the earth, the herbs, the stones are also part of our bodies. We must learn to be different, to feel and taste the manifold things that are us.

— Lame Deer

All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than any existence of mediocrity.

— James Fenimore Cooper

All of us take pride and pleasure in the fact that we are unique, but I'm afraid that when all is said and done the police are right: it all comes down to fingerprints.

— David Sedaris

All that has been said of the importance of individuality of character, and diversity in opinions and modes of conduct, involves, as of the same unspeakable importance, diversity of education. A general State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly like one another: and as the mold in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or the majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body. An education established and controlled by the State should only exist, if it exists at all, as one among many competing experiments, carried on for the purpose of example and stimulus, to keep the others up to a certain standard of excellence.

— John Stuart Mill

All the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal. ... But with each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether we read the books or not.

— Nick Hornby

All these men recognized what they themselves valued, and lived according to these values regardless of their relationship to the values of their community. Each lived according to what brought them happiness and peace rather than commonplace prescriptions of the multitudes.

— Chris Matakas

Always be a first-rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.

— Judy Garland

Always remember it's never about the other, the whole effort is to find your true self 'through' the other. In fact whenever your focus shifts from YOU to the other, there is bondage which will result in pain and anguish. The other is just a medium through which you can reach your inferiority. Never be obsessed for them, for that would lead to a self invited hell.

— Ramana Pemmaraju

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

— Margaret Mead

A man is known by the books he reads.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson