"Though the customs be both good as customs, and suitable to him, yet to conform to custom, merely as custom, does not educate or develop in him any of the qualities which are the distinctive endowment of a human being. The human faculties of perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference, are exercised only in making a choice. He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice. He gains no practice either in discerning or in desiring what is best. The mental and moral, like the muscular powers, are improved only by being used. The faculties are called into no exercise by doing a thing merely because others do it, no more than by believing a thing only because others believe it."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
J.S. Mill, On Liberty (Henry Holt, New York: 1895), Chapter 3, p. 105.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Conformity
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Conformity
85 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Conformity →
Related Quotes
"The power of the culture industry's ideology is such that conformity has replaced consciousness."
"That we have found the tendency to conformity in our society so strong... is a matter of concern. It raises questions…"
"Not only psychiatry itself but also the values reflected in its statistical definition of “normalcy” serve to conditi…"
"There is a socialization which turns curious children into adult automatons in a social environment of repressive uni…"
"Even though no one else discovers the nonconformity or enforces the rules against it, the individual who has committe…"
"The common denominator between all my cartoons is rebellion against blind conformity."
"The only distinction that democracies reward is a high degree of conformity."
"Liberation from the heroic only means that they have no resource whatsoever against conformity to the current “role m…"
"Socrates too thought that living according to the opinions of others was an illness. But he did not urge men to look …"
"Resist the pressure to conform. Better be a lonely individualist than a contented conformist."