12 Quotes on Society to reflect your Individuality

Quotes on Society: This article is a collection of quotes on society and the constant conflict with individuals. This collection represents 12 selected quotes and a brief analysis of their meaning. Society is nothing but an aggregate or a group of people. This group has its own values, thoughts and culture which influence your individuality.

I’d recommend considering these quotes in comparison with inspirational words about being yourself. The aim of this article is to present you with key questions about society and its influence on your personality. Please find below, the collection of society quotes and let us know your thoughts or comments below. This article is split into three segments:

• Quotes on society thinking
• Fake Society / Bad Society Quotes
• Judgemental society quotes

Although I have a lot of respect for society, in this article – I focus on individuality. Ultimately life is about love for yourself and then followed by everything else – It takes nothing to join the crowd, but everything to stand alone!

Quotes on society thinking

Do we create the society or does the society create us? I’m intrigued by the academic value of this discussion. But in practicality, it doesn’t matter. Society has been created a long time ago. Now, we are trying to find the best way to adapt so that society doesn’t harm us. The central theme of this section is group thinking.

You define beauty for yourself, society doesn’t define your beauty – Lady Gaga

Society or a collective likes to define things and organise them into standard moulds. You can call this the cookie cutter approach. The only reason why people do this is that it is easy. This approach simplifies concepts and people. It’s not fair – but easy sometimes overtakes fair.

No one stops to consider how this impacts you as an individual. This approach fails to appreciate individual character and beauty. Doesn’t that mean that society is wrong? If standardisation is made with the wrong rules, why should we let it define us?

Dont Let Society Shape Your Plans & ideas. They’re Defiling Your Self-Assurance –  Ravevx

Society is a beautiful influencer. It is troublesome when you let it take the role of a decider. You cannot give more power to society than it deserves. Very soon, it can start influencing your individuality and sway you into doubting your individuality and thoughts. In other words – this is swaying you into societal thinking rather than intrinsic, authentic thought.

Society worships those who are beautiful and puts down those who aren’t. If you don’t see a problem with this, you’re a part of the problem

This quote on society focuses on how culture creates role models and icons for your life. It is rather fascinating how these definitions are created. Society creates a standard set of rules for people to live up to. These rules or definitions include how you should dress up, appear or even talk to people. (Related: Choose your role models carefully)

These unwritten rules about society in a weird way define your character and personality. But this is an age-old common trap. You ought to know that ultimately it is up to you to define what influences you. If at each stage, you’re aware of your thoughts and inspirations – external influence automatically weakens.

Society has taught me that no matter what size I am, I will never be good enough. I’ll always be too short, too thin or too fat or too skinny, too this and too that

This is the final quote in our society quotes collection. I wanted to highlight this as the last quote on purpose. If you’re someone whose value is to satisfy people and meet expectations, then you’re in for some disappointment.

You will never be able to make everyone happy. The sooner you accept it, the better it is for you. Select the few people you want to share your life with. Find out the things that matter the most to you. Most importantly, find out what satisfies you the most. Everything else can work around it.

You can create your own network and society. You can even change your society. But expectation management must start with you first and then society follows. It cannot be the other way around.

Fake society quotes / Bad society quotes

Bad society quotes – society isn’t inherently bad or fake. My problem is that some people have an unfair influence compared to others. Unfortunately, this creates a massive bias in society. A society is beautiful when opposing thoughts flourish and we create a healthy debate. Any society that reacts defensively to opposing thoughts is a toxic or bad one. Society cannot command you – a good one can only inspire and question you.

Society is like the air, a necessity to breathe but insufficient to live on -George Santayana

I like this quote about society from George Santayana. In this, he talks about the balance between the necessity of society and its importance. A society is an integral part of your individuality and defines a collective set of values. However, it doesn’t mean that it defines who you are as a person.

Who you are as a person is your own individual and personal story. No one has a right to it or the entitlement to influence it. The most important thing to remember is that you create boundaries between society and your personal life. Circumstances will try and sway you into the herd mentality. Don’t fall into the common trap which the majority suffer under.

Society knows perfectly how well to kill a man and has methods more subtle than death

Well, death is sharp and noticeable. Society at the other end can be caustic sometimes. There is a very subtle yet strong way of converting people into a common belief and understanding. One word I can strongly relate to this is peer pressure. Exclusion is a powerful influencer. This doesn’t appear caustic or even aggressive. The impact is more subtle, people reduce talking to you, gossip behind your back and slowly start casting you away just because you are different.

In all the society quotes above, we talked about how important it is to protect your individuality. This will also include protecting yourself from all the gossip or planned ignorance you’ll be a part of. In such situations, look back at your values. Ask the question – is it worth me changing my values for this?

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat – Society Quotes

Nothing defines society, in a nutshell, better than this. It is almost funny that you’re set to fail right from the start. The rules of society are clearly defined:

• Do what everyone else is doing
• Aspire for similar things
• Get the same results

Do you see where I’m going with this? In all these rules, where does society ask you – what’s most important to you? No one but yourself can do that. Your values, goals and dreams are very important to you. For society – these things are not valuable. It selfishly cares about its own existence and wants to be stuck in the past!

Judgemental society quotes

Of all the quotes you can see, the judgemental society quotes are the worst. These quotes make us feel horrible because they’re true. And perhaps this judgement has the strongest influence on us and our confidence. We talked in detail about developing confidence. It is a hard enough exercise on its own. If you add society and its judgement in the constant mix – self-confidence becomes a harder existential entity!

Welcome to our society, you will be judged on what you wear, your taste in music, what you look like and how you act!

A perfect way to welcome you to society is by defining what it means. This is a slightly sarcastic tone, but I’m sure you’ll appreciate it. We are all born into a society of which we are a part. Most times, we don’t get to choose this society for a long time, yet it has its influence on us.

As much as we need society as an integral part of our lives, we need to be careful about its influence on us. You will be judged, criticised and even lauded for your contributions. The moment your thoughts are out of line with the general agreement, you are even attacked.

But this is true of every society or group of people. The most important point is to ensure that you don’t let these hurt your value system. The best way to diffuse yourself from this toxic influence is by learning to be yourself. Ultimately it is all about self-love – Definition of love quotes

Society is weird, they ask you to be yourself and yet judge you for it

I love this quote! It is a funny addition to the collective of society quotes. It is a weird place to be in where you’re expected both to be an individual and a part of society. You’re expected to have your opinions, individuality and thoughts. Yet, if these opinions are against the collective line of thought, you’ll be criticised and made fun of.

What’s the best way to deal with something like this? I’d say, treat society with a pinch of salt. You can’t let everything you see influence you deeply. Create a boundary between what society can influence you or not. You are born to be yourself and live as such – not just to be one among the herd!

In other words, identify your core values which should be untouched by everyone else. Ignore the ones which don’t make sense to you. And if society is trying to attack your values, stand tall and protect these values. At the end of the day, your values and standards will take you a long way compared to the limitations imposed by society.

Changing society will not help anyone, changing myself will help the society

Society and change don’t go very well together. It is often hard to make a change on such a large scale. Change doesn’t usually occur in a vacuum, even if it does – it will have some impact and change on yourself too.

It doesn’t mean that I am discouraging you from changing society. Making changes in society takes time because you will be challenging the thoughts and beliefs the collective has.

It takes time to win over them. Instead, changing yourself is easier. But makes sure that you don’t compromise your personality in the process. Whether you want to change yourself or society, it will come at a cost. Think again if anything attacks your core values. Perhaps there is a better solution than having to put yourself through a struggle that won’t give you good results.

The greatest hope of society is in individual character – William Ellery Channing

Talk about an ironic quote! But this is so true, isn’t it? As much as society wants you to be a part of the herd, it yearns for consistent change and improvement. If you look back at history, meaningful changes have all been affected by a single character. This character has brought changes and values into the society which now form a basic definition of the society you are in.

Anything left to itself will wither out and die. In technical terms, we call it entropy. Society falls into the same spectrum. The single biggest hope is that society constantly grows and improves. For this to happen, society depends on its individuals. These individuals through time take the shape and form of heroes.

Please don’t allow society to turn you into a person you are not

Society is a beautiful place. Although I like this collection of society quotes, I must impress the value of the quote which revives your individuality. As highlighted earlier, society wants to make you into something which it can easily take control of. The simplest journey of change is resistance, hatred, and then appreciation finally leading to change.

If you are the one making a change, society will tear you apart. It is almost as if society is testing how strong your values are. In other parlance, we call this – The Brick walls are there for a reason! They are testing how strong your commitment is. While this is in motion, you understand how protective society is about its cookie-cutter approach. Anything different will be resisted.

Unfortunately, your individuality will also be forced in some ways to make you a part of the herd. Don’t fall into this common trap. You will find greater rewards outside of this grouping.

You are born and then you die, but in between, you can do anything you want. It’s the society that creates rules for us, you can break out of it if you want – Zola Jesus

The society quotes collection can’t be more succinct than this. We all are born with a special individuality within. We make our own values, vision and goals. The same applies to our society as well.

Society’s rules needn’t be your rules too. You have a choice to make – whether to follow them or critically analyse your thought process. Some rules are meant to be broken. If they don’t tie in with your values of life, what is the point in being forced into something you don’t believe?

Before doing anything – find out the rules of your society. Check it with your own rules. Do these tie together? If not, what rules do you strongly disagree with?

Find out your own response mechanisms and if you think that they will not match, find a way to break free. You don’t owe anything to anyone – certainly not at the cost of your core values.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink