# Quotes about being different

- Quotes: 24
- Authors: 22
- Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different
- JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.json

## Quotes

> " People are strange when you're a stranger."

[Haruki Murakami](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami.md) · [Norwegian Wood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/norwegian-wood.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/norwegian-wood/people-are-strange.md)

Topics: [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> Mr. Ai, we’ve seen the same events with different eyes; I wrongly thought they’d seem the same to us.

[Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md) · [The Left Hand of Darkness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-left-hand-of-darkness.md) · p. 197 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-left-hand-of-darkness/mr-ai-weve.md)

Topics: [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> I expect people who don’t look like me not to be like me, a reasonable expectation, as expectations go; but it makes my mind slow to admit that people who look like me may not be like me.

[Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md) · [Changing Planes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/changing-planes.md) · p. 30 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/changing-planes/i-expect-people.md)

Topics: [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> In order for the wheel to turn, for life to be lived, impurities are needed, and the impurities of impurities in the soil, too, as is known, if it is to be fertile. Dissension, diversity, the grain of salt and mustard are needed: Fascism does not want them, forbids them, and that’s why you’re not a Fascist; it wants everybody to be the same, and you are not. But immaculate virtue does not exist either, or if it exists it is detestable.

[Primo Levi](https://www.leafyquotes.com/primo-levi.md) · [The Periodic Table](https://www.leafyquotes.com/primo-levi/the-periodic-table.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/primo-levi/the-periodic-table/in-order-for.md)

Topics: [tyranny](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tyranny.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> We are contrary creatures, us humans, but that isn't something we need be afraid of, or even much troubled by. And if you make a list of those people who worship consistency, you'll find they're one and all tyrants or would-be tyrants. Ruling over thousands, or over a husband or a wife, or some cowering child. Never fear contradiction, Cutter, it is the very heart of diversity.

[Steven Erikson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson.md) · [The Bonehunters](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/we-are-contrary.md)

Topics: [tyranny](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tyranny.md), [paradox](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/paradox.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> ... we think of strangers as stronger and better than we are.

[John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md) · [East of Eden](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/east-of-eden.md) · p. 194 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/east-of-eden/we-think-of-strangers.md)

Topics: [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> How much my life has changed, and yet how unchanged it has remained at bottom! When I think back and recall the time when I was still a member of the canine community, sharing in all its preoccupations, a dog among dogs, I find on closer examination that from the very beginning I sensed some discrepancy, some little maladjustment, causing a slight feeling of discomfort which not even the most decorous public functions could eliminate; more, that sometimes, no, not sometimes, but very often, the mere look of some fellow dog of my own circle that I was fond of, the mere look of him, as if I had just caught it for the first time, would fill me with helpless embarrassment and fear, even with despair.

[Franz Kafka](https://www.leafyquotes.com/franz-kafka.md) · [The Complete Stories](https://www.leafyquotes.com/franz-kafka/the-complete-stories.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/franz-kafka/the-complete-stories/how-much-my-life.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> Nadia shook her head, marveling at the capacity people had for ignoring what they had in common, and fighting bitterly over whatever small differences existed between them.

[Kim Stanley Robinson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson.md) · [Green Mars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars.md) · p. 386 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars/nadia-shook-her.md)

Topics: [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> Why should we become like you? We pride ourselves on not being like you.

[Robert Silverberg](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg.md) · [The World Inside](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/the-world-inside.md) · p. 451 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/the-world-inside/why-should-we-become.md)

Topics: [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> No one wants my painting because it is different from other people's — peculiar, crazy public that demands the greatest possible degree of originality on the painter's part and yet won't accept him unless his work resembles that of the others!

[Paul Gauguin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-gauguin.md) · [The Writings Of A Savage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-gauguin/the-writings-of-a-savage.md) · p. 205 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-gauguin/the-writings-of-a-savage/no-one-wants.md)

Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> A strange child, perhaps, but I wouldn't give a pinch of dust for a child who was not strange. Is not every child strange, by adult accounting, if we could only learn to know it? If it has no strangeness, what is the use of it? To grow up into another humanoid turnip?

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Cornish Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/a-strange-child.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> The Wart was not a proper son. He did not understand this, but it made him feel unhappy, because Kay seemed to regard it as making him inferior in some way. Also it was different not having a father and mother, and Kay had taught him that being different was wrong.

[T. H. White](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white.md) · [The Sword in the Stone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/the-wart-was.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> If nature has made you a bat, you shouldn't try and be an ostrich. You consider yourself odd at times, you accuse yourself of taking a road different from most people. You have to unlearn that! Gaze into the fire, the clouds and as soon as the inner voices begin to speak - surrender to them. Don't ask first whether it is permitted or would please your teachers or your father or some God. You will ruin yourself if you do that. That way you will become earth bound, a vegetable.

[Hermann Hesse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse.md) · [Demian](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse/demian.md) · p. 180 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse/demian/if-nature-has.md)

Topics: [self-knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> ... I was very upset about how Americans couldn’t imagine what it was like to be something else, to be something else and proud of it.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Cat's Cradle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/i-was-very.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> "You think I'm insane?" said Finnerty. Apparently he wanted more of a reaction than Paul had given him.
>
> "You're still in touch. I guess that's the test."
>
> "Barely — barely."
>
> "A psychiatrist could help. There's a good man in Albany."
>
> Finnerty shook his head. "He'd pull me back into the center, and I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center." He nodded, "Big, undreamed-of things — the people on the edge see them first."

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Player Piano](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/player-piano.md) · p. 86 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/player-piano/you-think-im-insane.md)

Topics: [madness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> You want to be yourself, idiosyncratic; the collective (school, rules, jobs, technology) wants you generic to the point of castration.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [The Bed of Procrustes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes.md) · p. 54 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/you-want-to-be-yourself.md)

Topics: [conformity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> The world will always punish the few people with special talents the rest of us don't recognize as real.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Haunted](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted/the-world-will.md)

Topics: [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> "That man is … odd," I dared say to William.
>
> "He is, or has been, in many ways a great man. But for this very reason he is odd. It is only petty men who seem normal."

[Umberto Eco](https://www.leafyquotes.com/umberto-eco.md) · [The Name of the Rose](https://www.leafyquotes.com/umberto-eco/the-name-of-the-rose.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/umberto-eco/the-name-of-the-rose/that-man-is-odd.md)

Topics: [genius](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/genius.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> In the course of evolution nature has gone to endless trouble to see that every individual is unlike every other individual.... Physically and mentally, each one of us is unique. Any culture which, in the interests of efficiency or in the name of some political or religious dogma, seeks to standardize the human individual, commits an outrage against man's biological nature.

[Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World Revisited](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited.md) · p. 21 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited/in-the-course.md)

Topics: [individualism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/individualism.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> The feeling of being ten thousand years behind, or ahead, of the others, of belonging to the beginnings or to the end of humanity...

[Emil Cioran](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran.md) · [The Trouble With Being Born](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/the-feeling-of-being.md)

Topics: [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> Yet I admit that with such different teaching Emile will not be just like everybody else, and heaven preserve him from such a fate! But where he is unlike other people, he will neither cause annoyance nor will he be absurd; the difference will be perceptible but not unpleasant. Emile will be, if you like, an agreeable foreigner. At first his peculiarities will be excused with the phrase, "He will learn." After a time people will get used to his ways, and seeing that he does not change they will still make excuses for him and say, "He is made that way."

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/yet-i-admit.md)

Topics: [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> Sometimes I had an overwhelming urge to speak, not about that, but only to hint that there were some curious things about me which no one knew of. I wanted to find out whether other people had undergone similar experiences. I never succeeded in discovering so much as a trace of them in others. As a result, I had the feeling that I was either outlawed or elect, accursed or blessed.

[Carl Jung](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung.md) · [Memories, Dreams, Reflections](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/memories-dreams-reflections.md) · p. 41 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/memories-dreams-reflections/sometimes-i-had.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people — people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from normal standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work. Some of the lodgers in our hotel lived lives that were curious beyond words.

[George Orwell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell.md) · [Down and Out in Paris and London](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london/the-paris-slums.md)

Topics: [poverty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> Exceptional people are often called crazy by the ordinary world.

[Erica Jong](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong.md) · [Fear of Flying](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying/exceptional-people-are.md)

Topics: [madness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness.md), [genius](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/genius.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)